New Midway fire station on hold amid concerns of ballooning budget

Plans for a new fire station in Midway are in limbo after state legislators cut off the main revenue stream for the project.

The project began as a part of the Midway Fire District’s 2019-2025 strategic plan, which initially planned to improve equipment, add more personnel and develop two fire stations for the District in order to enhance its services and keep up with rapid growth in the area.

Station 36 was planned for construction in between Midway’s existing stations, but the District paused the project in early May because of a reduction in revenue. House Bill 1577, which unanimously passed the Florida House in late February and the Senate in early March, will amend the District’s charter and remove its authority to assess and levy ad valorem taxes.

“This legislation will reduce our funding by about $1 million after the fees we must pay for the Tax Collector, Property Appraiser, and early prepay discounts,” said Midway Fire Chief Jonathan Kanzigg when contacted by the News Journal about the project and the impact of the bill. “The fire district spent $484,000 from impact fees to get this project going.”

Rep. Alex Andrade filed the bill in early January due to concerns about the Midway Fire District’s annual increases to its budget and it potentially having an "excessive" fiscal impact on Midway’s taxpayers.

“Their ad valorem tax rate has gone from 1.75 mills in 2015 to 2.48 mills in 2024,” Andrade said. “At a time when most folks were dealing with an inflation crisis, a global pandemic and everything else, they have raised their millage rate twice since 2021.”

Millage, per the Florida Department of Revenue, is a tax rate defined as the dollars assessed for each $1,000 of value; one mill is $1 per $1,000 of assessed value.

HB 1577 goes into effect on Oct. 1 and will also impose restrictions on the Midway Fire District’s ability to levy non-ad valorem assessments by establishing maximum rates.

Ad valorem taxes make up the majority of the Midway Fire District’s revenue, generating about $6.6 million during Fiscal Year 2022-23. The bill's economic impact statement indicates that HB 1577 will decrease the District’s revenue by approximately $661,983 for the first fiscal year after coming into effect.

Even with the station’s construction on hold, some investments have already been made in anticipation of its development.

A ladder truck has been purchased for the new station and is being funded through Santa Rosa County’s Local Options Sales Tax.

Station 36’s firefighters have already been hired and trained as well. Their positions were initially funded from February 2021 until this past February through a $1 million federal grant called the SAFER grant.

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The grant was awarded to the Midway Fire District so that their response times could meet the National Fire Protection Standards and to get people in place by the time that the new station was complete.

The District applied for the grant before the COVID pandemic began and expected Station 36 to be finished shortly after the new firefighters were hired. They increased their tax rate over the last couple of years in anticipation of the grant ending this past February, according to Kanzigg.

The Station 36 project's architecture, design and permitting plans were finished before the District decided to pause the initiative. Firefighters for the new station are currently housed at Station 35 due to the delays.

Kanzigg couldn’t provide a timeframe for when the project would continue, but he told the News Journal that Andrade verbally agreed to request a state appropriation so that the project to be put out for bid. However, nothing is set in stone yet.

“I’m always willing to work with an organization, especially a taxing authority, that falls within my house district, but it’s not my job to tell them how to spend their money,” Andrade said. “It’s just my job to make sure that taxpayers are protected. In this case, I see a taxing authority that’s in my house district that’s more than tripled their budget since 2015.”

The Midway Fire District serves the areas in between Gulf Breeze and Navarre. It is an independent special fire control district created by special act in 1980, with its charter re-codified in 2003.

This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: Midway Fire District's development plans to build Station 36 on hold