https://n2v.almanacnews.com/square/print/2017/03/01/menlo-park-fire-district-considers-revenue-raising-measures


Town Square

Menlo Park fire district considers revenue-raising measures

Original post made on Feb 28, 2017

On the same night the governing board of the Menlo Park Fire Protection District heard it is expected to end the year with a surplus of $6.7 million more than had been projected, the board moved forward two measures designed to bring even more revenue into the district.

Read the full story here Web Link posted Wednesday, March 1, 2017, 12:00 AM

Comments

Posted by Peter Carpenter
a resident of Atherton: Lindenwood
on Feb 28, 2017 at 12:49 pm

Peter Carpenter is a registered user.

The Fire Board intentional makes a very conservative estimate regarding its anticipated property tax revenues. It does so to avoid the problem that many other agencies have of spending more money than the actual end up receiving.

At the end of each year any such "surplus" is utilized to reserve for/pay off our very real pension obligations - again something that almost no other agency does. Most agencies simply spend all of their current year revenues on current year expenses without addressing their every growing pension obligations.

I sincerely doubt that the District's taxpayers would rather that we spend more money on more staff in order not to have a "surplus" that allows for these annual contributions to our pension obligations.