Allen County's $49M Fire District Is Counting on a State Approval It Doesn't Have Yet

The Allen County Courthouse in downtown Fort Wayne. The County Council takes up the new countywide fire and EMS district's budget Oct. 19 at nearby Citizens Square. Photo: Charles W. Chapman via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Politicians almost never correct themselves in writing. Allen County Councilwoman Lindsey Hammond did it Thursday, the morning after a tense, five-minute exchange with the county's new fire chief at a budget meeting. Then she explained why her real point still stands: Allen County is being asked to lock in a $48.9 million fire and EMS budget before the state has said the new district can collect the taxes to pay for it.

The district, which begins Jan. 1, would combine the Northwest, Northeast, West Central, Southwest and East Central fire territories and stretch coverage into southeast Allen County, WPTA reported. It covers everything in the county outside the areas served by the Fort Wayne Fire Department and Three Rivers Ambulance Authority. The County Council votes on its budget, along with every other county budget, at 5:30 p.m. Oct. 19 in Room 035 of Citizens Square.

The $43 million question

Funding the district at full size depends on an excess levy appeal, meaning permission to raise more property tax than the state's normal growth limit allows. That appeal has not received final approval from the Indiana Department of Local Government Finance, WPTA reported last month. If the state turns it down, The Journal Gazette reported, the district would be left with about $5.8 million, the amount set for the old Northeast Allen County Fire District, and more than $43 million of the budget would have no money behind it.

“That is uncertainty that I don't want to take … because that could potentially put us in a situation where, we're middle of November going into December, and that we don't have an opportunity to restore any other funding,” Hammond, an at-large Republican, said at Wednesday's meeting, according to the Journal Gazette.

Councilman Tom Harris, R-2nd, answered that the state's guidance so far suggests the district will likely be approved. Hammond's reply was that council has to vote on what the law allows, not on a state agency's expected answer. State officials have already told WANE 15, as WOWO relayed, that the council may reduce or modify the proposed budget and levy but cannot increase them.

What the chief says taxpayers get

Executive Fire and EMS Chief Jeremy Bush has a case, and it deserves a full hearing. The district says its 2027 budget pays for 20 paramedics and 10 firefighters and brings advanced life support and an eight-minute response standard to the whole county. Keeping the old patchwork going with basic raises would cost $48.7 million, the district said in a statement published by WANE, so the unified plan costs roughly $327,000 more while adding staff.

“Any delay to this isn't going to save us costs,” Bush told WPTA, adding that the district's efficiency models show consolidation saving about 24%, more than $1 million. “I think that we're ready to hit the ground running Jan. 1.”

Read the district's own paperwork closely, though, and the comparison shifts with the baseline. In a Sept. 28 letter to council, Bush put the request at $48,988,990, which is $1,240,392, or about 2.6%, above the combined 2026 approved budgets of the districts being merged, WOWO reported. Both numbers can be true at once. One measures against what the old system might cost next year; the other measures against what taxpayers actually approved this year.

A rate, and no cap

The district estimates the actual 2027 rate at about 32 cents per $100 of assessed value, cumulative capital fund included, built on a maximum levy equal to roughly 40 cents, according to a fact sheet posted by AroundFortWayne. Some areas paying as much as 37 cents now would see their rates fall under consolidation, while others would rise to even out countywide funding, WPTA reported.

That is the part that worries people on fixed incomes. “There's no tax cap. That's alarming to me. Let's fix it and then proceed,” Lori DeWitt told WPTA at a Board of Fire Trustees meeting in New Haven last month, saying she supports both consolidation and first responders. The district counters that any levy growth above the state limit in future years would need approval from its trustees, the County Council and the state, and it has promised to seek the commissioners' blessing too.

Who shut the conversation down

The debate wasn't on Wednesday's agenda. The fire budget was listed for public comment only, and Hammond raised her one-year delay near the end of the meeting, after which Bush came to the podium, the Journal Gazette reported. Councilmen Paul Lagemann, R-3rd, and Harris tried to cut it off, with Lagemann calling it inappropriate to argue outside the agenda. More than 10 residents spoke, mostly in favor of the district.

Bush told Hammond her proposal had never been brought to the people who would have to carry it out. “You're proposing a plan that has no basis,” he said, per the Journal Gazette. Hammond said council's timeline had been squeezed because the commissioners didn't act until July 10, and that she has a duty to taxpayers to check the plan independently.

Her written correction, posted in full by WANE, walked back one claim: the state did not formally advise the district to file separate backup budgets for the old districts. It only discussed that option with district staff. “The district was made aware of an option that could have preserved another path forward if the consolidated budget was not approved. That option was not pursued,” she wrote.

Pushing the start to January 2028 would take the county commissioners amending the unification ordinance, and council members agreed to bring the idea to them before the Oct. 19 vote. Bush's letter counts about 50 working days between that vote and New Year's. Either way, a $49 million tax decision is coming fast, and as of this week the state still hadn't ruled on the extra levy meant to pay for it.

Written by Hoosiers, for Hoosiers.