The Clay Fire Territory, which already includes Harris and German townships, and the towns of Roseland and Indian Village, could soon be expanding to add Penn Township and Osceola.
Harris Township trustee Ken Lindsay says two factors are driving the effort. Last year the Indiana General Assembly passed a bill limiting existing fire territories from growing their property tax rates more than 4% a year. But Lindsay says wages are growing much faster than 4% so territories have to expand boundaries so they can raise tax rates more.
Lindsay says the new expanded territory would roughly double Harris’ tax rate, from 23 cents per $100 of assessed value to nearly 50 cents. He says rather than structure fires, the biggest thing driving the need is 911 ambulance calls.
”I think we’re up to 5,000 or so a year, so other people have the same environment and they’re going to come after your most experienced paramedics, so we’ve had people leave because other units with much higher salaries have come and said come work for us,” Lindsay says.
They plan day and evening hearings on March 9, then votes by the elected boards on March 24.
