Wednesday’s approval by the Osceola County Commission of new fire assessment fees at a reconvened public hearing illustrated local representative government in action, complete with last-minute pleas, several failed votes and then success – finally – thanks to compromise.

The commission had to continue meeting on the fees after it could not reach agreement Tuesday on this very contentious and important issue. At stake were large increases in the fire fee for many commercial and industrial/warehouse property owners, who, arguably, would have passed those increases along to the small businesses occupying those buildings. Owner-occupied buildings also were part of the mix.

While we applaud the commission for finally approving new fire fees, we don’t fully agree with the final solution. In July, we editorialized against about $1.9 million in buy-downs for institutional and tax-exempt property – schools and churches, for example – because most of these entities do not create jobs and aren’t likely to close if faced with higher fees. We also believe everyone should pay their fair share for fire service and that all property owners shouldn’t have to pay for the fees of special interest groups through a general fund subsidy.

Fast forward to Wednesday. The commission approved an additional buy-down of $942,750 for commercial and industrial/warehouse properties. As part of its final decision, the commission included a provision whereby residential property owners could request a hardship waiver of the amount of their fire fee increase.

Here are some options we would have considered:

• Reduce the buy-down for the institutional and tax-exempt property by the amount needed for the commercial and industrial/warehouse properties, because the money to pay for it was already in the county budget. The buy-downs for the public schools would be at the top of the list for cutting, followed by churches and then social service agencies, if needed.

• No buy-downs period. However, the higher fees – which admittedly might produce additional job cuts at small businesses – could be mitigated through a hardship waiver program available for all property classes. In this way, only those property owners truly in need would get help.

There’s always next year, as we fully expect this issue to be back.