City of Charlotte Fire Protection Fund
In 2021, the City of Charlotte was facing a significant budgetary shortfall. In an effort to protect city services, including the fire department, the City Council created a Special Assessment District to provide dedicated funding for the fire department in 2021. This will ensure the department is protected from cuts due to funding shortfalls in the city. We recognize the fire department provides an invaluable service to our community. Firefighters work hard to keep the community safe beyond fighting fires and responding to emergencies. They also serve an important role in fire prevention, disaster preparedness, and education on fire safety. Our firefighters are on-call to respond to any emergency which may include life saving evacuation, hazard mitigation, and medical emergencies. All these duties require on-going training and equipment to provide the services we all depend upon in our time of need.
Back at the station, their duties continue as they maintain equipment and vehicles, stay up-to-date on latest training and best practices, and engage in practice drills to keep their skills sharp. Our fire department also serves as a valuable partner in the community providing public education and community outreach. Coordinating with the schools to provide fire safety education for children, along with events like the Christmas Kiddies, our fire department is truly a community resource. Recognizing the important benefits of the fire department has led the city officials to consider this dedicated assessment to ensure the funding needed remains available to maintain these services. Without this additional revenue, we will not be able to continue to provide the same level of service by the fire department, or any of the other valuable city services.
Each year, the City Council must review the annual expenditures and the City Assessor must prepare an assessment roll to defray 85% of those costs. The Special Assessment Roll for 2022 can be reviewed in-person at City Hall or a online here as pdf:
Special Assessment Tax Roll 2022 – PDF
or online as excel file here:
Special Assessment Tax Roll 2022 – Excel
There will be two public hearings held on this assessment – Monday, June 6th at 7pm and Monday, June 20th at 7pm.
A copy of the presentation from Monday, June 6th is available here:Special Assessment Presentation
To learn more about this assessment, and why it was adopted, please links below:
