The North Collier Fire District is trying to raise its revenue by another $3.5 million to keep up with their expanding services, such as water rescues and training for active shooter situations. But people living in the Vi at Bentley Village retirement community say the tax would hit them with an unfair hike.
Janet Vasey was one of numerous people living at Bentley Village who blasted the plan at Thursday's fire district meeting.
"I don't think an increase of $390,000 is saving us taxes," she told the commissioners.
Currently, Bentley Village pays about $86,000 a year to the fire district. But with the proposed tax plan, that could skyrocket to $675,000.
"This would be passed on to all of the residents, who are basically on fixed incomes," said Frank Halas, a former Collier County commissioner and current Bentley Village resident.
Vasey said that the proposed tax plan assesses her community as an institution, which means they would be taxed much higher than residential rates.
"They've called us an institution, and we are really residences," Vasey said. "We have a homestead exemption and we're not an institution."
After hearing from numerous Bentley Village residents at Thursday's meeting, fire commissioners agreed that they need to take another look at how Bentley Village would be taxed.
"I'd like to postpone what we're doing for a month, to give us an opportunity to get with the appraiser and get with the community," said fire commissioner J. Christopher Lombardo.
"That makes sense," Vasey said after the majority of commissioners agreed with Lombardo. "I'll be very interested to see what they come back with in a month."
