(Thomas Daly) – For Washoe County residents seeking improved fire and emergency medical services (EMS) delivery, especially in light of the near disastrous Davis and Callahan wildfire fires last Fall, there are two pending choices.
Not choices for voters, but for our state and local representatives.
The first choice is SB-319, currently before the State senate.
That bill would authorize the creation by local officials of a giant new fire District with unlimited taxing power combining the Truckee Meadows Fire Protection District (TMFPD) and the fire departments of Reno and Sparks, but not the North Lake Tahoe Fire Protection District.
Apparently, residents of Incline Village and Crystal Bay are not worthy of inclusion.
The new district would be required to assume the debt of the TMFPD and those of the Reno and Sparks fire departments, both current debt and any in the pipeline, before the FY28 operation of the new district.
How much debt? About $108 million based on FY25 budgets and announced new debt, mostly for new stations, already under construction or in the financing process.
Repayment obligations over 20 years would be about $6 million per year.
Operating costs, now $153 million for the three departments, would be about $168 million in FY28, plus capital costs for the normal acquisition of replacement apparatus, about $10 million annually and some $5.5 million in deferred maintenance for Reno’s dilapidated fire stations.
So about $189 million, in all.
For fire protection districts traditional funding methods are 66% from property takes. So, what tax rate would be needed to raise the $124 million?
Difficult to predict assessed values three years in advance, but using current formulas, about $2.48/$100AV.
For TMPFD taxpayers our current ‘fire (property) tax’ is $0.54/$100AV. So, around a 400% increase.
The second choice is cooperative interlocal agreements among all area jurisdictions for a single dispatch agency and unrestricted automatic aid (closest units respond regardless of jurisdiction).
Reno’s Center for Public Safety Management study and Washoe County’s Blue Ribbon Committee on Fire Services Regionalization report both recommended these improvements.
Further, Washoe County’s IXP Corporation study indicates a single fire/EMS dispatch agency would save area taxpayers $991K as of 2017, so likely $1.2 million+ in 2026.
REMSA’s dispatch operation already handles all area emergency medical requests, plus dispatches all TMFPD units for fires in the District.
Their dispatch operation is nationally recognized for their expertise, so it could become the primary public safety answering point (PSAP) and dispatch operation with little new investment.
Unrestricted automatic aid agreements have no costs for the requesting or responding agency for the first 24 hours.
The current Reno/TMFPD restricted automatic aid agreement expired on June 30, 2024, so the timing to resurrect this agreement, with amendments, is now.
Let your state Senators, Assemblymembers and County Commissioners know of your thoughts on this issue.
Thomas Daly is a resident of Washoe County and is served by the TMFPD. The opinions expressed by contributors are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of Nevada News & Views.
