When Marion County voters approved a Constitutional amendment calling for a three mill property tax to benefit fire protection in their county, it seemed to be a good thing for both the citizens and the fire departments.
One year after its passage, the bill has proven controversial both in its application and the question of which departments it will benefit.
At the center of that controversy is the Hodges Volunteer Fire Department, which has served residents in both Franklin and Marion counties for decades. Hodges FD has its main building in Franklin County and a substation with a 1,250-per-minute pumper, located 2.5 miles into Marion County.
Hodges was one of the Franklin County volunteer fire departments whose residents approved an annual fee of $36 to support the department each year, so the department will benefit from that revenue.
Since Hodges FD also serves Marion County though, the members of the department also expected to benefit from revenue through the Marion County tax. But that expectation hit a major roadblock in the form of the Marion County Firefighters Association.
Hodges chief Leslie Cantrell said when his department inquired about its share of the Marion County tax revenue, he was told that the law stated the department had to be a member of the Marion County Firefighters Association to benefit from it.
“We serve Marion County, and 911 and the ISO ratings developed over the years reflect and recognize we serve Franklin and Marion counties,” Cantrell said. “We have an opinion from the Alabama Attorney General [in another case] where a judge ruled in the fire department’s favor and considered the department to be in both counties. That applies to us.
“Since we’ve served Marion County forty years, and at one time all our paging came out of Marion County, we consider ourselves a Marion County fire department.”
Cantrell said he and fellow Hodges FD members have attended five Marion County Firefighters Association meetings, and they have been turned down in their request for their share of tax revenue each time.
“We went on a Thursday night to the association meeting at Twin and gave them the attorney general opinion and asked for our share. We’ve tried to do everything right,” Cantrell said. “We’ve helped departments including Sulligent, Haleyville during tornado season, Winfield in looking for a missing drowning victim.
“All of a sudden since the tax passed, we’re not part of Marion County.”
Cantrell said his department’s share of the Marion County tax would be at least $60,000-$70,000 per year.That amount stands to increase significantly if officials in Marion County apply the tax to property beyond real property, including vehicles and business inventory.
That remains another source of debate with the new law. The amendment’s language called for a three mill tax to be based on “the value of real and personal property assessed by affected property owners...”
Some residents say they were told by Marion County officials who were urging them to support the tax that it would only apply to land.
“Right now, this year, they’re just collecting it on property tax. But if they include all taxable personal property in Marion County, that could include car tags, boat tags and anything you go to the courthouse and pay taxes on,” Cantrell said. “That could get the department’s amount to $100,000 a year.”
As for who benefits from the tax, the amendment’s language states “the amount collected each year from assessment of the fire protection tax shall be paid to the Marion County Firefighters Association, to be distributed equally among the paid and volunteer fire departments in the county.”
Cantrell said Hodges FD was previously invited to join Marion County Firefighters Association years ago, but when the state tobacco tax passed, the Hodges chief at the time said his department was already receiving the tax on the Franklin County side so Hodges didn’t join, even though it served a large portion of Marion County.
“But they won’t let us join now. It got nasty the other night,” Cantrell said. “They got mad and told us to leave the meeting. One guy grabbed me by the arm and told me to leave, and they were going into executive session. We left because we didn’t want to cause any problems.”
Cantrell hoped to meet with Marion County commissioners, but that hasn’t happened yet. So far, the commission has not offered to help the Hodges FD.
Repeated efforts to contact Jeff Williams, president of the Marion County Firefighters Association, to get comment for this article were unsuccessful.
Cantrell said he doesn’t want to pull out of Marion County because there are many residents who would be out of the five-mile circle if they do. That would put those residents seven to nine miles from a fire department, and their ISO ratings would soar, Cantrell said.
“We offered to keep covering the people of Marion County for only $10,000 of the tax revenue each year, and they even refused that,” Cantrell said. “They wouldn’t even consider it. We decided since they were not going to work with us and help the people in their county, we’d just go for the whole equal share for Hodges.
“Half of our service area and half our revenue will be gone if they force us out of Marion County. It’s not fair, and it’s not right. People will be unprotected. I live on the Marion County side right on the edge of the five-mile circle, and I think we do a great job of responding and taking care of Marion County people through the years.”
