Effective January 2010, the Public Fire Protection (PFP) fee was removed from the general property tax levy. The PFP fee is now assessed on the quarterly water bills.
The intent of the PFP charge is to recover the costs related to Water System capacity that is necessary for fire protection purposes (e.g., water storage needs, fire hydrant capital replacement and maintenance, additional well and pumping equipment capacity, etc.) The Village Board chose to make this change for the following reasons:
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PFP fee, as a direct charge on the water bill, does not count toward the Village's levy limit; therefore, increases to the PFP charges due to future water rate increases do not force reductions in other Village services.
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Property taxes currently earmarked for PFP charges can be used for other vital municipal services.
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Tax exempt entities will now pay for the PFP service.
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The Village has chosen to use the Equivalent Meters Method to allocate these charges based on the ratio of meter size.
