Hopkins Hill FD Approves Fiscal 2014 Budget and Tax Rates, Pending Legislation

Employees, board members and taxpayers of the Hopkins Hill Fire District  (HHFD) gathered at 1 Bestwick Trail for the district's annual meeting on the evening of May 4.

According to meeting minutes provided to Coventry Patch on May 23, 32 qualified voters of the district were present and voted unanimously to approve the 2013-2014 Operating Budget totaling $1,066,950, which includes personnel and operations costs. 

Prior to voting on the fiscal 2014 tax rate, Clerk Carol Dion read a resolution which offered the district two options dependent on the passage or rejection of legislation introduced by Sens. Leo Raptakis (D-Coventry, E.G., W.W.) and Nick Kettle (R-Dist.-21 Coventry, Foster, Scituate). The legislation, Senate Bill 0940, if passed, would allow HHFD to adopt a tax classification plan enabling tiered taxation on two separate classes of property; Class 1: "Residential real estate consisting of no more than five dwelling units, land classified as open space, and dwellings on leased land including mobile homes." and Class 2: "Commercial and industrial real estate, residential properties containing partial commercial or businesses uses and residential real estate of more than five dwelling units." It would also prohibit the plan from exceeding 50% between the classes.

If the legislation is passed, residential property owners would experience a 20.7% tax hike with an increased rate of $2.10 per $1,000 of value up from the fiscal 2013 rate of $1.74 per thousand. In the same scenario, the commercial property rate would decrease from $3.48 per thousand of valuation to $3.15, reflecting a 9.5% decrease.

According to Sen. Kettle, the bill, which was introduced and referred to the Senate Finance Committee on May 16, would have to be acted upon by the Senate before June 24 when the 2013 legislative session comes to a close. If it is not passed, the fire district would be obligated to continue taxation using the one-tier system for all properties. 

The residential rate would then increase by nearly 38%, from $1.74 per thousand to $2.40. Commercial property owners would experience a 31% decrease with the new rate of $2.40 per thousand, down from $3.48 in fiscal 2013.

Apart from the proposed tax classification plan, the legislation would enable the fire district to use the same appropriation amounts from the prior fiscal year at the same levy and tax rate in the instance that the district fails to approve an updated annual appropriation.

During the May 4 meeting, voters also approved the election of HHFD Board members as follows: Dan Danis, Chairperson; Ken Burdick, Vice Chairperson; Carol Dion, Clerk; Barbara Kane, Treasurer; Denise Brown, Tax Collector; Denise Degraide, Tax Assessor; and Carrie Moore, Member at Large.

Members were also elected to the Hydrant Committee: Frank Brown, Chairperson; Mark Vincent and Chris Moore. The three men were also elected to the district's Street Lighting Committee.

Treasurer Barbara Kane presented her report which showed a balance on hand of $402,725.10 (checking and savings) and $54,884.44 (CDs) as of May, 2013.

Tax Collector Denise Brown gave her report displaying $901,121.84 in total receipts (which includes past due, interest, penalties and legal fees).

Tax Assessor Denise Degraide reported a total taxable district evaluation of $365,270,941.

Chief Frank Brown presented his Chief's Report along with the Hydrant/Street Lighting and Fire Marshal's reports. He also gave the Operations/Training and Rescue reports, which showed 927 emergency calls in 2012 and 73 non-EMS responses for major categories. HHFD provided mutual fire aid to neighboring districts 102 times and received aid 83 times. During the same year, the district's Rescue Division responded to 688 EMA calls, 191 of which were mutual aid calls mostly in Coventry (92 to Central Coventry, 59 to Coventry (Anthony), and 2 to Western Coventry fire districts).

Copies of all reports are attached to this article as image files.