Fire board has budget surplus
Hey savvy news reader! Thanks for choosing local.
You are now reading
1 of 3 free articles.
Editor,
For the fourth consecutive year, the Polson Rural Fire District has ended its fiscal year with excess tax money from us, the taxpayers, while continuing to claim it needs more money.
For the last fiscal year, tax revenue received was $139,193, and expenses on budgeted items were $106,160, resulting in $30,033 excess tax revenue. The PRFD Board of Trustees tried to explain to me, "in terms even I might understand," that this wasn't really excess tax revenue because "we spent it (on non-budgeted items)." Huh?
Also, their recently approved budget for the coming fiscal year is $120,600. Although this a 13.6 percent increase over the previous year's expenses, it is still $20,340 below the expected tax revenue of $140,940.
Will the Board consider reducing taxes in these hard economic times, or will they spend the "surplus" as quickly as they did this year?
Tom Eddy
Polson
