MOORESVILLE — A debate over whether or not to raise taxes in a Morgan County community finally came to an end on Thursday.
The Mooresville Town Council and Brown Township Board are in agreement: they will not approve a proposed Fire Territory, that would’ve potentially increased property taxes by 30 to 32 percent.
This comes after three lengthy public hearings, which had hours of testimony from neighbors arguing for or against the proposal.
One petition had over 1,100 signatures.
“We’re all thinking the same. We listened to the public, we’ve taken everything in and that’s good that we all came to an agreement," Mooresville Town Council member Joshua Brown said.
Brown was impressed by the outpour of public input.
Brown says a Fire Territory is necessary, but the potential 32 percent property tax increase was not the way to fund it.
“We wanna review other options and resources and we gotta do something and hopefully next year we can get it done," he said.
WRTV has been following this story for weeks.
We spoke with Mooresville Fire Chief Matt Dalton at the last public hearing on March 6.
Dalton tells us the Fire Territory would increase staff, man ambulances 24/7 and cover more 911 calls.
This comes at a time when his department is understaffed and 911 calls are more frequent.
PREVIOUS | Mooresville, Brown Township seek to create Fire Territory
“Currently, we’re seeing with call volumes and stuff like that, basically we’re understaffed," Dalton said. “We’re short and we can’t get trucks out the door.”
Neighbor Rob Samuels understands the need for a Fire Territory.
“I support the fire department, yes something needs to be done," Samuels said.
But he thinks it’s unfair that taxpayers like him would have to fund it.
“We’re looking at $1,600 a year in property tax increase," Samuels said. “They can look at it as let’s do a lower amount, present it to the public and explain why and that’d be a different scenario.”
This was the last public forum about the proposed establishment of The Mooresville – Brown Township Fire Protection Territory for this year.
If they want to put it up for another vote, they’ll have to wait until 2026.
