Attention ESD #8 Taxpayers; Budget Tidbit (2)

Evidently the city has decided that there are extra $ available in ESD #8 and they have figured out a creative way to extract more $ from ESD #8 and into the City fire budget.

Remember, ESD #8 has its own property taxing authority and the ESD board sets the tax rates based on the needs of the district.

ESD #8 is building a new fire station on Williams Drive near FM3405 and they will turn the finished building over to Georgetown who will staff and operate the station. This will be known as Georgetown Fire Station #7.

Georgetown historically has provided fire service coverage to ESD #8, which surrounds the City of Georgetown, by charging ESD #8 on the basis of the number of calls responded to in the ESD #8 district.

The new methodology the City is using for budget year 2019 is shown on the following slide.

It is unclear to this observer how the number of properties served, assessed valuation and the population are predictors and surrogates for the cost of providing firemen and equipment for ESD #8. But they are used to increase the revenue from ESD #8 into the city coffers!

In fact, ESD #8 will increase its payment to Georgetown by 42.7% due to this change in methodology. ESD #8s annual payment will increase from $1,611,608 to $2,300,000. That's a whopping $688,392 increase. It is extremely doubtful that the taxpayers of ESD #8 will experience an increase in level of service commensurate with that amount. Increased service only comes with decreased response times which means more fire stations and crews, which this methodology does not provide.

PS: Here is a map of ESD #8