Safety Harbor residents and business owners could soon see a new fire fee added to their annual property tax bills to help cover a projected $3.4 million budget gap.
The City Commission discussed the proposal at a June 15 special workshop in response to a statewide ballot measure on Nov. 3 — a proposed constitutional amendment that would expand the homestead exemption to $150,000, sharply cutting the property tax revenue the city relies on for local services.
City Manager Josh Stefancic said the city cannot wait until budget season to act. If the amendment passes Nov. 3, he said, Safety Harbor would begin scaling back operations Jan. 1, 2027, to align with a budget, starting Oct. 1, 2027, that would open with a roughly $3.4 million shortfall.
To protect the budget, the city is weighing a non-ad valorem fire special assessment. Unlike ordinary property taxes, which flow into a general pool that can fund any city project, this money would be legally restricted, said municipal finance attorney Christopher B. Roe.
“Special assessments are a dedicated revenue source,” Roe said. “If you impose them to fund your fire department, you can only use the money to fund fire.”
Because the charge is a service fee, not a property tax, breaks such as the homestead exemption and “Save Our Homes” caps would not apply. Churches, nonprofits and historically exempt properties would all be billed unless the commission votes to exempt them.
The fee cannot legally cover the city’s entire $5.6 million fire department budget. Florida law allows property assessments to pay only for protecting real estate, not people. Costs tied to emergency medical services and paramedic rescues, which protect individuals, must be excluded.
Commissioners asked how much of the department’s budget goes toward medical calls. Stefancic said EMS paramedic operations account for about $1.3 million, which Pinellas County reimburses.
A specialized consultant would audit three to five years of call logs to remove EMS runs, traffic crashes and out-of-town mutual aid calls, Roe said. Once those are cleared, he said, cities typically recover about 90% of their fire-only budget through the fee, with property taxes covering the rest.
Property owners’ bills would be calculated under one of two methods now under review. The first, a demand model, is based on historical fire calls: homeowners would split the residential share evenly, and businesses would pay according to total square footage.
Commissioners worried that this approach would charge an empty warehouse the same rate as a fully occupied office building of the same size.
“Commonly, cities will adopt a cap, like a 100,000-square-foot cap,” Roe said, “because a fire at a building that big is pretty much going to take everything you’ve got anyway.”
The second option, an availability model, would bill every property — including vacant lots — a flat readiness fee to support the fire stations. When commissioners asked about scrapping the flat fee and billing solely on building value, Roe advised against it.
“I recommend avoiding a whole new system,” Roe said. “The two systems I’ve mentioned are tried and true in the state of Florida and have withstood legal challenge. ... The one you’re describing ... would be open to challenge. It looks, at that point, a lot like a property tax.”
The city faces a tight timeline. To place the fee on the county’s November tax bills, the commission must run newspaper ads for four consecutive weeks and pass a placeholder resolution by Dec. 31. Missing the deadline would cost the city access to the county tax collector, forcing it to mail separate bills to every property.
Staff pushed back on waiting until after the November election, saying a data consultant needs six months to scrub local records and calculate exact household rates. The figures must be finalized, mailed to residents at least 20 days ahead and certified by Sept. 15.
Preliminary data shows Safety Harbor has roughly 8,000 properties — 7,200 residential and 800 commercial.
Some commissioners hesitated, recalling resident backlash over a past street lighting fee. Supporters countered that a fixed assessment keeps fire funding stable even if property values fall.
The workshop closed with the commission directing staff to research the options and bring specific rate models to upcoming summer budget workshops.