Stephen Wukela, Florence Mayor
The mayor of Florence is proposing raising your taxes to better protect you and your property.
Mayor Stephen Wukela says the city hasn't increased taxes since the 1970's and because of that, the fire and police departments have suffered.
Mayor Wukela wants to include the increase in the budget, which would go into effect next month, but the mayor first has to convince his fellow council members of the need to raise taxes.
"I don't revel in increasing taxes, but those are not unreasonable to fund what we need as far as fire and police," said Wukela.
Wukela says the city needs to build a fifth fire station.
He says the city's insurance rating or ISO now stands at 2, because 10 years ago firefighters could get to burning homes within in three minutes, but Wukela says that's not the case today due to the city's growth.
"There are many places in the city that our fire department, in spite of their best efforts, can't get to in 10 minutes or more"'
And that could eventually raise your homeowner's insurance.
As for police, Wukela says the city needs to hire at least 18 more officers and build a police substation downtown.
"I believe that we have a serious gang problem. I believe that we have a serious crime problem, and I believe that we've got to fund additional police to deal with that problem," Wukela added.
Here's what he's proposing:
If you own a home in the city of Florence, your taxes wouldn't go up this year. The increase would only apply to business owners.
Homeowners would see the proposed increase next year.
If your home is valued at $100,000 you would pay an additional $1.08 a month.
A $250,000 home would see an increase of $2.71 a month.
Taxes on a business building valued at $50,000 would go up by 50 cents per month.
Council meets on the issue Monday afternoon.
