NORTH COUNTY FIRE DISTRICT SEEKS TAX HIKE

OAK RIDGE -- Voters Tuesday will decide the fate of a 30-cent tax levy proposal to fund the North Cape County Fire District.

If approved, fire district officials plan to implement a 25-cent levy for this year although the measure would allow the fire district to levy up to 30 cents per $100 assessed valuation.

Fire district officials had originally talked of implementing such a tax levy last fall. But the district's three-member board of directors abandoned the idea after the Missouri State Auditor's Office expressed concern that the proposed tax levy could violate the state's tax-limitation (Hancock) law.

Fire officials said a 30-cent tax levy was authorized by voters in 1977, but never implemented.

But the auditor's office said it could not approve the levy without another vote because the tax was not in effect at the time the Hancock Amendment was enacted in 1980.

Fire district officials said last fall that with high insurance costs and the need to replace aging equipment, the district needed more than the $10,000 to $12,000 it was receiving annually in donations to continue operating.

A 30-cent levy would bring in about $30,000 annually, fire district officials have said.

The district, which operates two fire stations the North Station at Friedheim and the South Station at Oak Ridge serves a large area of rural, northern Cape Girardeau County.