Wednesday, Feb. 24, 2010

Town should keep hands off fire tax

We weren't surprised when Archer Lodge leaders abandoned their bid to pool fire-tax dollars and town property-tax receipts. In a test of political clout and will, the newbie town council was going to lose to the decades-old fire department.

In the council's defense, we're sure it had no sinister motives, and its thinking was sound: Use fire taxes to get more state dollars for the new town. A town budget with just property taxes would garner $170,000 in state aid. A budget with property and fire taxes would yield $350,000 from the state, a councilman said.

Still, plotting ways to extract more money from the taxpayers of North Carolina is hardly an admirable pursuit. Or did Archer Lodge leaders not think that state money would come from folks in Smithfield, Selma, Four Oaks and every other North Carolina community? We've never been fans of taxpayers in one state or town paying for government in another. If the State of Alaska wants to build a bridge to nowhere, then the people of Alaska should pay for that bridge. Likewise, if Archer Lodge wants to grow its government, then the people of Archer Lodge should pay for that government.

While we're at it, the Archer Lodge Fire Department could benefit from some soul-searching of its own. We've been around long enough to know that money in government means power. So when they demand to keep fire-tax money, fire department leaders need to ask themselves if they're trying to keep their hold on power too.

Still, the fire department is right to want to keep fire taxes under its control, because like firefighters, we think the town, if caught in a financial bind, would use fire department money to pay town bills. That's not what the fire tax is for.

The bottom line is that people in and around Archer Lodge pay a tax to support their fire department. They don't pay that money to support the town.

In Archer Lodge, the fire department might one day become an arm of town government. That has happened in other Johnston towns, including Smithfield and Clayton. Until then, however, the fire tax in Archer Lodge should stay with the fire department.