Pearl River voters OK fire tax renewal

Voters have spoken: Pearl River firemen and EMTs deserve fatter paychecks.

With a narrow victory Tuesday night, Pearl River voters approved a 10-year property tax renewal for the area’s fire department with a vote of 1,162 to 971, or 54.5 to 45.5 percent, according to the Secretary of State.

The money, about 20 percent of the department’s annual budget, will increase salaries of firemen from roughly $20,000 a year to about $27,000 a year, Pearl River’s Fire Protection District 11 Fire Chief Robert Crowe said. EMTs will also see salaries raised from $35,000 a year to $38,000, he said.

“The people that work here lay down their lives every day for strangers. Often this goes unrecognized,” Crowe said. “Not this time. I want to personally thank the citizens for supporting us.”

“This fire department belongs to the citizens of this community,” he said.

The 10-mill tax, likely to cost residents of a $100,000 home about $25 per year, will expire in 2018, Crowe said. It’s one of three taxes that fund the department’s operational expenses, and it accounts for roughly 20 percent, or $107,000, of the department’s yearly budget, Crowe said.

Originally the tax was expected to collect about $130,000 annually, slightly more than 25 percent of the department’s $434,000 yearly budget, Crowe said.

But after home values took a recent spike during 2008 assessments, the fire department on Oct. 28 decided to “rollback” its collections, meaning it won’t collect as much per household as before, Crowe said.

The department can afford to collect less that legally allowed because more people have moved into the area and the collections are spread out to more homes, making up the difference, Crowe said.