24/06/2024
The Porter Township Board will have a millage request for fire/rescue coverage on the August 6th Primary ballot. We ask for your support. Here are a few points of interest. There will be a public hearing before the Board meeting July 10th at 5:30pm for questions.
*If the township does not have reasonable fire coverage insurance companies WILL NOT insure your home and property.
*Proposed 1 mill ($1.00 per $1,000 of taxable value). If your taxable value is $54,768, your fire/rescue tax = $54.77/year
*Previous Breckenridge/Wheeler Fire/Rescue stand-by fee was $28,200 in 2022. They are now requesting $80,192.51 This year our contract is for $56,139. They have worked with us for a couple of years until we can get it on the ballot. That included a 5% increase over last year. Each year we may be charged a percentage increase.
*Before we had fire/rescue coverage from BWFR, our coverage was from Lee Township. Lee Township was asked about how much they would need to charge us for standby coverage and it would be significantly more. Coverage from Lee Township would cause longer response times increasing home insurance costs.
*Township has always paid standby fee out of general fund but we can’t do it anymore with this increase
*With the new contract residents will not be billed for fire or rescue runs. These are covered with the stand-by charge.
*We currently get about $430,170 from DTE for wind turbine taxes but can only keep about $52,527 for township use. If the millage request is passed, we could keep about $95,620 more from them to help cover the new costs. If the millage request fails, no additional money will come from DTE to cover fire/rescue stand-by expense.
*If millage does not pass, the board will have to impose a special assessment for the same purpose but we will not have the benefit of the DTE $. This would mean we would have to charge each (resident/parcel) a standard amount (regardless of property value). That amount will likely be about $150 (the board has not determined this amount yet as we hope the millage will be successful and we will not have to levy a special assessment amount).
*If a resident received a poverty exemption, it would only ease the burden of a millage charge, not a special assessment. That would still be owed.
