Do you know what the ESD is?

If you don't know what the line item on your property taxes that reads "Emer Serv District 1" is, you need to. The Emergency Services District or ESD is a taxing body to provide emergency services to those who live outside the city limits. The Johnson County ESD is divided up into several areas all served through cities that are under contract with the ESD to actually provide the service to the county based residents. It's a great idea when executed properly and fairly, but as with all contracts the terms sometimes need to be renegotiated to make sure all parties are benefiting. That's the case now with the city of Joshua and the ESD. The citizens of Joshua are most certainly not getting the most out of the current arrangement.

For our current budget year to date our fire department has spent 53% of it's time providing services to residents outside the city limits of Joshua. Last year the total was 60%. Now that might be fine if the ESD provided 50%-60% of the Fire Department budget, but they do not. Last year Joshua received a mere $93,000 from the ESD and if the city of Joshua agrees to extend the contract again the ESD will provide $111,000. That may seem like a lot of money to some people, but our fire department budget is $284,000 so the ESD provided just 1/3 third of the revenue for 1/2 of the service.

This imbalance goes deeper though. Because of the high number of calls that our fire department has to deal with outside the city limits we put significantly more wear and tear on our vehicles and equipment, not to mention our volunteers. In addition we have more equipment and vehicles than we would need if we were only serving the city of Joshua. Some more costly vehicles that we don't really need for within the city limits will need to be replaced in a few years too.

Underneath the ESD line item on your property taxes you'll see "City of Joshua" if you live in the city limits. In that item you're paying for fire service in the city of Joshua along with all the other budget items to run our city. Paying the ESD tax as well is double taxation for the same service because Joshua is a part of the Emergency Services District.

Now I don't want to just leave this as a decision on numbers. There's a human element to this. The people who live outside the city limits need someone to respond to them for fires and medical emergencies, but the taxpaying citizens of Joshua need to be fairly compensated for the service. If Joshua were to discontinue the service it would be a huge savings for our citizens and other departments would have to take up the area that Joshua now serves. Our department would provide mutual aid when needed just like we do now for Burleson or Cleburne or any other department in need. If Joshua is to remain a part of the ESD the ESD needs to step up and compensate the city dollar for dollar what we spend to provide the service in our operating budget and on equipment purchases. The ESD has returned barely half of what it receives in taxes back to the cities that provide the service and that's just not right.

I'd like to hear your opinion. You can email me at AJ@ajmathieu.com or call Joshua city hall at 817-558-7447 and leave a message for any city council member. The Johnson County ESD can be reached at 817-556-2212.

A.J. Mathieu
Joshua City Councilman