Park County Tax Increase

Yes.....they have received several tax increases over the last few years.
I haven't forgotten the scare tactics and manipulation of data Platte Canyon Fire used to manipulate the public. They received that increase and pissed off the money by poor management.
HC is right.....it is a 1 % increase.
Now they want to claim it is for everyone.
I listen to the scanner. Elk Creek responds to a good many calls for Platte Canyon......more than they should (IMO). Our population is dropping yet they double their ambulance staff to answer fewer calls.
Hate to say I told you so but......I Told You So......

At a meeting on Sept. 10 of the Platte Canyon Fire Protection District in Bailey, Fire Chief Mark Wesseldine and Administrator Gail Judge told the board of directors that a 1 cent sales tax would help the many cash-strapped fire districts in the county.

Although I have no dog in this fight, I would like to hear more about how the funds raised through this 1% sales tax increase (about a 27% increase in sales taxes if my calculations are correct) would be distributed among the fire departments in the county.

frogger wrote: Yes.....they have received several tax increases over the last few years.
I haven't forgotten the scare tactics and manipulation of data Platte Canyon Fire used to manipulate the public. They received that increase and pissed off the money by poor management.
HC is right.....it is a 1 % increase.
Now they want to claim it is for everyone.
I listen to the scanner. Elk Creek responds to a good many calls for Platte Canyon......more than they should (IMO). Our population is dropping yet they double their ambulance staff to answer fewer calls.
Hate to say I told you so but......I Told You So......

You may want to try reading this long article re: the ambulance budget. Sounds very confusing and questions about if the fire and ambulance are really separate budgets, and how much money is being spent where from the ambulance mil tax. Good reading. Maybe they should first figure out where the money is going before asking for new sales tax rates.

http://www.theflume.com/news/first_five ... f6878.html

I read it again.

It appears no one has taken them to task for this fiasco they call accounting and misuse of ambulance funds?

towermonkey wrote: A sales tax increase in Park County would raise more money from tourists than it would impact locals. Most of us go over to Jeffco to shop as there is no grocery store here. I've been arguing for this for years.

edited to add: It would affect large purchases such as automobiles as they collect based on your residence.

I'd rather see them just adjust the fire district mill levy number to account for the drop in property assessments, assuming they can justify the current budget. A permanent sales tax increase for a temporary property value/revenue decline sounds like a bad idea to me.

In looking at another thread for ECFD, Friends of Elk Creek had a graph of the number of people employed, Platte Canyon shows the highest number of employees. I would like to see in particular how many runs all the ambulance crews are actually making. Are taxpayers paying for the additional crews to just sit around waiting for a call? None of the other FD require this number of paid ambulance crews.