Martin County Fire Rescue officials say a proposed statewide property tax reform measure on the November ballot could significantly reduce the department's budget, forcing difficult decisions that could affect staffing, station operations and emergency response times.
The proposal would provide the first major property tax relief for homeowners since 2008, increasing the exemption in year one to $150,000, and then to $250,000 in year two.
Because county services are largely funded through property taxes, departments across the Treasure Coast have begun evaluating how potential revenue losses could affect operations.
Martin County Fire Chief Chad Cianciulli said the financial impact on the department would grow over time if the measure is approved.
"In year one, when it's $150,000, if this passes, fire rescue receives a reduction in our budget of $9.5 million. And then in year two, it compounds. In year two, we receive an additional $7 million reduction, which is a total of $16.5 million just to our budget. That's a 22% decrease with how we operate today," he said.
Cianciulli said those reductions would likely require closing two fire stations, one at each end of the county, making it more difficult to meet the department's response standards.
"If this passes in year one, we're going to go ahead and close down station 18 and we're going to close down station 33. Station 18 is at the northern end of the county, station 33 is at the southern end of the county," he said.
Later, he added: "In the urban service district, we have to respond to an emergency within eight minutes of time, 90% of the time. If we did this, we would be hard pressed to make that."
Personnel costs make up the largest portion of the department's budget, meaning staffing reductions would account for much of the savings, Cianciulli said.
"The only way to reach the total of year one and year two of this $16.5 million is to lay off 116 firefighters. For perspective, we have three shifts, an Alpha, a Bravo, and a Charlie. One shift consists of 116 firefighters," he said.
Cianciulli also said staffing shortages could result in fire engines or rescue trucks being temporarily taken out of service because of overtime constraints.
"You have stations that are still operating in the county, but on a randomized basis, some of those trucks will get shut down. So it's going to be a very inconsistent level of service. You can have a fire truck shut down for a day, depending on my staffing, or you can have a rescue truck shut down for a day, depending on our staffing. But that's the inconsistency that's starting to occur," he said.
Fire Rescue Administrator Matt Resch said equipment replacement and maintenance would also be affected by the proposed cuts.
"This brings apparatus reliability into question and increases our maintenance costs across the board. The next reduction would be $835,000 for bunker gear, extrication equipment, and our marine rescue unit. That means firefighters would have to continue wearing their personal protective equipment for longer than intended, and the rescue tools would have to be used well beyond their useful life," he said.
Some county commissioners, however, said they would prioritize preserving emergency services when considering budget reductions.
Commissioner Edward Ciampi said he would look to other departments before supporting cuts to fire rescue.
"I think we'll have to look further down the hierarchy of county services before I would entertain any of this. There's not a lot of services that counties offer that are a matter of life and death. This and what our police department and sheriff's office does is, in my mind, we would be doing a lot more belt tightening elsewhere," he said.
Commissioner Eileen Vargas said she believes the county should first examine department-wide budget reductions and identify potential savings before considering service cuts.
"So I want to ask our county administrator, Mr. Donaldson, would you please be kind enough to present a budget cutting 10% from every department of which firefighters are part of and show us what that would look like? I think that's very reasonable. I think it's tangible," she said.