LA PLATA, Md. — Charles County expects to collect $18,390,199 in dedicated fire and EMS taxes in fiscal year 2027 — and by the fire board’s own accounting, that still won’t be enough to cover what its volunteer departments say they need.
The Charles County Board of Fire and Rescue Commissioners got its first public look at the FY2027 fire and EMS tax distribution formula at its September meeting, the annual spreadsheet that divides the county’s dedicated fire tax revenue among its volunteer companies. Of the total, $5,746,937 is earmarked for EMS operations and $1,149,387 for LOSAP, the volunteers’ length-of-service retirement program, leaving the remainder for fire operations.
“We’re only budgeting such as the fire, we’re looking at the 86% budget,” Chairman Lynn Gilroy told the board. “There’s 14% of that budget that’s not funded. That’s because we only got so much money coming in from you, the taxpayers, that you’re paying through your fire tax, and it’s distributed through the entire county. So we have to make do with what we have.”
Apparatus costs are the biggest driver
Gilroy walked the board through what’s pushing costs higher. A new pumper truck now runs about $1.25 million, up from $1.16 million last year — a 4% increase in a single budget cycle. A ladder truck or tower platform, the kind used by stations in Waldorf, Indian Head, and La Plata, now costs roughly $2.45 million. Tankers, needed for the county’s rural, non-hydrant areas, have climbed to $800,000 from $770,000, and a fully equipped squad truck carrying extrication equipment can run as high as $1.8 million.
“None of this stuff is cheap,” Gilroy said. “It’s gone through the roof.” He noted that departments only receive a percentage of those costs based on the distribution formula, and that big-ticket apparatus purchases are typically financed and repaid over as long as 20 years — meaning departments are often still paying off equipment that’s already outdated by the time it’s paid for. “The departments are always playing catch up,” he said.
The budget also raises the county’s building-cost allowances, a recognition of a separate construction cost spike: the per-square-foot building allowance rises from $250 to $260, and building operations costs rise from $3.50 to $3.75 per square foot. Gilroy pointed to a new EMS station under construction in Waldorf, on the former Maryland State Police barracks site, as a real-world comparison — he said he’d heard that project is running over $500 per square foot, more than double what the board’s allowance covers, even though it’s a metal-frame building. “We can’t get it keep up with it,” he said. “We can’t keep up with all the needs of the apparatus and the buildings and everything and maintenance and all that and still build new buildings. It’s just unbelievable.”
Where the money goes on the EMS side
Vice Chairman Bill Deere presented the EMS side of the formula, which raises several accounts and zeroes out others. The Health and Safety S-GRO account, funded at zero last year, gets $15,000 for the first time. The tuition and book reimbursement account, by contrast, is being zeroed out entirely this year on the recommendation of its committee chair. The coordinator’s salary and office expenses account is funded at $100,959, which Deere said covers a new office printer, a service contract, and turnout gear for the county fire chief. A new account was also created to help fund the county’s medical director position, split with the fire side, at $30,000 — an expense volunteers previously didn’t contribute to directly.
A tax credit, and a question from Annapolis
The budget presentation came alongside a related piece of good news for volunteers: the county’s $2,500 property tax credit for eligible volunteer firefighters and EMS personnel, passed by the commissioners in May as part of the county’s broader $641.8 million FY2027 budget, is now going out to eligible volunteers. Deere told the board that letters notifying volunteers of the credit had been mailed, and that any volunteer who didn’t receive one should contact the association directly.
But the credit has also drawn scrutiny in Annapolis. Deere said Del. Debra Davis, who represents Charles County, has asked the association for documentation on how many volunteers would be affected if the related state income tax subtraction for volunteer service were reduced or eliminated. The association is compiling those numbers now to send to Commissioner Gilbert “BJ” Bowling’s office, which will forward them to the state legislature.
Both the fire and EMS distribution formulas were tabled at the September meeting, giving departments and the public time to review the full spreadsheet before the board votes at its October meeting. Actual payouts to individual departments won’t be finalized until November, once the county calculates how much the fire tax actually collected.
