The Lenoir County budget for the 2013-14 fiscal year takes $20,000 from the eight volunteer fire department’s stipend. The reduction of funds — it will go from $48,000 to $28,000 — took quite a few local officials by surprise, including North Lenoir VFD treasurer Franklin Floyd.
“From the fire department’s perspective, we don’t have full understanding how it will affect us,” Floyd said. “We still need time to figure everything out.”
J. Mac Daughety — one of two commissioners to vote against the budget— was outspoken with his support of volunteer firefighters. Last week, Daughety wrote a post on his Facebook page, saying, “I voted against the budget because I thought more cuts were in line and that we should have left the VFD’s stipend the same if we weren’t going to cut at the same level.”
On Wednesday, Daughety remained unchanged with his opinion.
“I just thought it was unfair,” Daughety said. “These people volunteer their time, do all these fundraisers and give a significant amount of free work to the community. I’m in favor of cutting unnecessary spending, but $48,000 toward those who save lives is a major bargain to the taxpayers.”
County Manager Mike Jarman explained the reasoning for cutting the VFD stipend, saying the city of Kinston shouldn’t have to deal with twice the amount of taxes.
“The citizens of Kinston shouldn’t have to pay both city and county fire department taxes, especially when they’ll only receive one service,” Jarman said.
Commissioner Craig Hill — who was named liaison to the Lenoir County Fire Association on Monday and voted for the budget — wanted to keep VFD funding the same, but felt it wasn’t financially sound in its previous state.
“I was in favor of the volunteer fire department getting the $48,000, but the way it was distributed wasn’t right,” Hill said. “The money we took should’ve come out of the fire taxes. The commissioners support the fire department wholeheartedly, but giving them less money out of the general fund was a compromise we had to make to save money for the citizens.”
Hill also went on to say volunteer fire departments could make up the difference with solid planning amongst their organizations.
“This budget gives them a year to prepare for loss of revenue and make a determination on whether or not to raise fire taxes,” Hill said. “The commissioners didn’t want to hurt the fire department and supports what they do, but we had to make this move.”
Although tough times may be ahead for VFDs, Floyd said there is no plan to raise fire taxes above the current rate of 4.5 cents per $100 value.
“Our primary concerns are the safety of public and making sure we can continue to provide our services,” Floyd said. “We’ll rely more on donations and increase fundraisers, but we’re not planning on changing the way we operate.”
Junious Smith III can be reached at 252-559-1077 and at Junious.Smith@Kinston.com. Follow him on Twitter at @JuniousSmithIII.