The Copper Canyon Fire and Medical District Governing Board unanimously approved its $14,584,661 budget June 17.
The district budgeted $5,649,843 in property tax revenue, $1,110,900 in grant funding, $1,011,274 from Intergovernmental Agreements and $2,400,000 in ambulance fees.
“The only thing I would like to highlight, that we continued to talk through the last couple of weeks, we were able to reduce the mill rate by one cent this year,” Fire Chief Danny Johnson said during the budget meeting.
For Arizona fire districts, the mill rate, which is used to calculate property taxes, is applied to each $100 of a property’s assessed limited property value.
The CCFMD, the mill rate going into next year will be $3.58, which is below the statutory maximum of $3.75.
“The Copper Canyon Board is very aware that the District’s past financial struggles had an impact on taxpayers,” Johnson recently wrote. “That is something the Board takes seriously. Their current approach is focused on rebuilding capacity within the budget while remaining fiscally responsible with taxpayer dollars.”
Expenses
The budgeted expenses and revenues match to the dollar, although $2,509,983 of the expenses go toward the reserve carryforward for future years.
Most of the expenses go toward personnel costs, with $4,303,794 going toward salaries and wages and $2,025,450 toward other benefits like health insurance, workman’s compensation and retirement benefits.
Along with the budgetadoption was a policy to ensure the pension payments are funded correctly.
“It’s going to look very similar to the ones we adopt every year,” Johnson said. “Quite a few years back, we refinanced our pension entries. Our pension liability still remains well funded in the 99% to 100% funded, … which is a very good funding model.”
Other large expenses include $1.4 million in restricted fund balance, $1.1 million in grant expenses, $526,572 for buying, replacing and operating machinery, $388,427 in communications operations, $242,456 in tool and equipment operation and $158,106 in uniforms.
“We buy uniforms every year, … firefighters are replacing their shirts, especially in the summertime,” Johnson said. “They’re going through them, and they’re getting crusty and nasty and burnt.”
Because the cost of uniforms are incorporated in the district’s budget annually, next year’s rebranding — through the Joint Powers Agreement with the Verde Valley fire District — shouldn’t be too expensive, Johnson said.
Joint Powers Agreement
At the end of the meeting, Johnson said the district has narrowed down the top four possible names for the Joint Powers Agreement with the Verde Valley Fire District.
The contenders are:
- Verde Valley Fire Authority
- Verde Fire Authority
- Verde River Fire Authority
- Copper State Fire Authority
The JPA rebranding and naming rhetoric will be covered more in a future story.
