Redevelopment areas represent a hit to fire district’s budget

BARSTOW • Funds from designated redevelopment areas have financed large-scale public projects and infrastructure improvements in Barstow, but they also divert funds from the fire district.

Redevelopment funds are a mechanism for improving areas with blighted conditions like deteriorating or vacant buildings, inadequate infrastructure, high crime rates and stagnant or falling property values. The city designates certain project areas for redevelopment and spends designated redevelopment funds on developing projects there.

In the past, redevelopment funds have helped to finance the Robert A. Sessions Memorial Sportspark, the Wal-Mart store on Montara Road, the Al Vigil Swim Center, and trees and landscaping on the downtown Main Street traffic median, city spokesman John Rader said. By law, 20 percent of the funds must be set aside for low- to moderate-income housing.

The projects are funded through property taxes. Once a redevelopment zone is designated, assessed property values within the zone are set at a base value. As property values rise, property owners pay the corresponding increase in taxes, but the taxes above the base year’s assessed value go into the redevelopment fund rather than being divided among various taxing entities like the fire district and school district. Those districts continue to collect the same amount of property taxes that they collected the year the RDA project area was put in place.

Barstow Fire Protection Chief Darrell Jauss acknowledged the value of RDAs in stimulating the local economy. RDA money helped the fire district back in 1977 by financing the construction of the fire station on Barstow Road, for a little less than $1 million, he said.

But since then, the foregone revenue has become a significant hit to the fire district’s budget. The forgone taxes in the RDA project areas compound other factors like Proposition 13, which limits property taxes to 1 percent of the value of a property, Jauss said.

“Obviously, not having (the additional property taxes in the RDA project areas) keeps us from having some of the firefighters we need,” Jauss said. “... It’s an unfortunate situation for the fire district, and it’s put us in the position where we have to look to alternate funding.”

One of those alternate funding sources is Measure D, a .75-percent proposed sales tax increase, with the funds to be split between Barstow Police Department and the fire district. The fire district hopes the added revenue would allow it to hire six new firefighters and six firefighter/paramedics in the first year, along with purchasing an equipped paramedic squad vehicle.

Although the RDA project areas will eventually be returned to the tax rolls, Jauss said he is not counting on that happening any time soon.

“I’ve just treated it like it’s never going to sunset, because even after I retire, we’ll probably never see it sunset,” he said.

Rader wrote in an e-mail that none of the project areas are due to sunset in the near future.

Rader wrote that the city understands the financial impact of the RDA on the fire district and the district’s need to find alternative funding sources to offset it. Still, he states that the city would be negligent not to use the RDA as a tool to fund public improvements, eliminate blight and stimulate development.

Contact the writer:
(760) 256-4123 or asewell@desertdispatch.com

By the Numbers

• $3.6 million: Barstow Fire Protection District 2007/08 budget
• $635,000: Property taxes foregone by fire district due to RDA in 2007/08
• 6: Number of firefighter/paramedic positions the foregone money would pay for
Source: Barstow Fire Protection District, city of Barstow