Upgrades to Warren County’s volunteer fire departments may be on the way after action taken Thursday by Warren Fiscal Court that could provide the necessary funding.

In a unanimous vote, the six magistrates on fiscal court passed the first reading of an ordinance that would impose a license fee on insurance companies operating in the county. The revenue, potentially as much as $4.5 million per year, would go for upgrades and improvements identified by new Warren County Fire Coordinator Bill Rector.

Rector, whose job was created as an outgrowth of a study of the fire departments done by consultant MissionCIT, made a presentation to the magistrates arguing that the license fee is needed as the fire departments face growing call volumes, struggles finding volunteers, and difficulties keeping equipment up-to-date.

“We have an extremely committed group of volunteer firefighters in the county,” Rector told the magistrates. “We need to find a way to better support them. We need to make some significant changes immediately.”

The license fee on insurance companies has the potential to help county government afford those significant changes, which range from hiring some paid firefighters, replacing aging equipment, and making repairs to VFD stations.

Although no percentage of insurance premium revenue was spelled out in the first reading of the ordinance, County Judge-Executive Doug Gorman estimated that implementing the fee could raise up to $4.5 million per year.

That would immediately be a three-fold increase over current funding for the VFDs, which comes primarily from annual fire dues paid by residences and businesses in the county. Currently, the annual fire dues are $50 for households and $70 for businesses. Those dues generated $1,308,755 to be spread across nine VFDs in 2023, and fiscal court provided another $316,500.

That falls far short of the Bowling Green Fire Department’s annual budget of more than $21 million, which comes primarily from a fee on insurance premiums.

Gorman said the consultant’s study and Rector’s own findings have “opened our eyes to some of the stresses on our fire departments.”

“They’re just stretched so thin and have been for a while,” Gorman said. “This is something that should’ve happened many years ago. We’re glad to be able to tackle it now. We’ll have better ability with this funding mechanism to have the training, equipment, and personnel necessary and have standard operating procedures for the entire county.”

The license fee on insurance companies was one of the recommendations in the MissionCIT study, although other possible funding mechanisms were considered. Rector said the fee has been used successfully by cities and counties across the state, although he didn’t push for it himself.

“I’ve taken the stance that the mechanism of funding is up to the elected officials,” he said. “My primary focus is funding the fire department. However they fund it, I’m OK with it.”

Rector and some county fire chiefs made the case to the magistrates that a funding increase is needed.

Brian Lee, chief of the Richardsville VFD since 2008, said his department has seen its call volume balloon from 450 calls annually to more than 1,200.

Woodburn VFD Chief Bob Skipper said the increased call volume translates to a need not only for personnel but for investments in equipment and building maintenance.

“We don’t bring in enough money to afford the big-ticket items,” Skipper said.

Those big-ticket items include pumper trucks costing as much as $1 million and ladder trucks costing as much as $1.7 million, Rector said.

Implementing the insurance license fee to pay for newer equipment to replace some outdated pieces might be a hard sell for some taxpayers, Gorman admitted.

“We anticipate citizen input in favor of this and some not in favor,” he said. “We have to do what we believe is in the best interest of the county.”

Although homeowners may see a hike in insurance rates initially, both Gorman and Sixth District Magistrate Ron Cummings believe that will be offset when improved fire protection leads to better Insurance Services Office (ISO) ratings that are used to set insurance premiums.

“If nothing is done, our ISO ratings will go up, and that can be catastrophic for people’s homeowners insurance,” Gorman said. “We’re fully intending to lower ISO ratings so premiums will drop.”

Cummings called the insurance license fee a “necessary step” to address the pressures on the VFDs from the county’s rapid growth, but he thinks any pain from the fee will be fleeting.

“This could lead to a small increase in insurance premiums,” he said, “but that will be offset by a decreased premium coming from an improved ISO rating. Ultimately, it may go down if this is put in place.”

The license fee could be enacted soon. Gorman said county officials will fine-tune the proposal over the next two weeks and have a second and final reading at the March 13 fiscal court meeting.