Osceola County commissioners made the right decision Monday in tentatively deciding to keep in place the current method of determining most fire fees, with changes proposed only for agricultural and vacant land so that owners of these kinds of property pay a fairer share of the burden for fire service.

The proposed method of determining the fees was problematic in that it shifted too much of the burden onto small businesses and homeowners. It would have been financially devastating for many small businesses had they been required to pay the higher fees.

Commissioners aren’t out of the woods on this issue. They still have to decide whether to buy down fees for certain classes of property as they have in the past and also decide whether to cut Osceola County Fire Rescue’s 2010-11 budget.

Buying down fees for some property classes as well as exempting institutions (such as churches and nonprofits) using property tax money out of the general fund essentially is asking the remaining taxpayers to pay more so others can pay less or nothing at all. We don’t see that as fundamentally fair. To that end, we would like to see the county adopt the recommendation from the fire fee task force that the buy-down and exemptions be phased out completely over five years, with fees raised corresponding amounts each year to compensate.

As to whether there will be a budget cut depends in some measure on how much property tax revenue comes into the general fund following another big drop in property values and what the public will accept as far as a drop in the quality of fire service.

We don’t recommend the commission undertake any budget cut if it would result in dramatically higher insurance rates for property owners – that would be cutting off our nose to spite our face.

At Monday’s meeting, we also heard some pretty mean-spirited comments about firefighters and union members: that they are overpaid and unwilling to make wage and benefit concessions, like the private sector has been forced to do over the last three years.

In terms of wage concessions, the county manager recently recommended to commissioners that they explore requiring all county employees – including those in unions – to take a two-week unpaid furlough with hourly workers taking a corresponding pay cut. That furlough would be the equivalent of a 3.8 percent pay reduction.