OCALA, Fla. (WCJB) - Marion County Fire Rescue officials are proposing a raise to the annual fire assessment fee.

The proposal would raise the fire assessment fee from $199.91 to $283.97 per dwelling, for a difference of about $84.

The money helps fund fire prevention, firefighter training, medical services, and public safety education programs.

“We provide a lot of information to our consultant, and we look a the next five years, and what personnel costs are going to be, what operational costs, and those types of things, and make some projections, and we try to come up with a rate that will sustain us for the next five years,” Marion County Fire Rescue Chief James Banta shared.

“The average revenue over the next 5 years would be about $54 million. And the fire assessment can only fund

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