Regular Fire Board Meeting - July 10, 2024

A lien assessed against real and personal property attaches on the first day of January preceding assessment and levy.

The taxpayers may, by vote of the electorate, authorize a permanent override, depending upon certain criteria being met. The taxpayers also may authorize the issuance of bonds for capital acquisitions in addition to the operating taxes referred to above. The County collects a County-Wide Fire District Assistance Tax (FDAT) and distributes the funds to all Fire Districts in the County, according to a formula established by state law. The maximum awarded to a District cannot exceed $400,000 per year. The District offers its employees a deferred compensation plan created in accordance with Internal Revenue Code (IRC) Section 457. This plan, available to all District employees, permits employees to defer a portion of their current salary until future years. Assets held in IRC Section 457 plans are generally not subject to claims of creditors. It is the District’s position that it has no liability for investment losses under the plan but has the duty of due care that would be required of an ordinary prudent investor. The District believes it is unlikely that it will use the assets to satisfy the claims of general creditors in the future.

NOTE 18 – DEFERRED COMPENSATION PLAN

NOTE 19- SUBSEQUENT EVENTS

Management has evaluated subsequent events and does not know of any additional comments or disclosures that should be made thru the date of this report.

NOTE 20 - GOING CONCERN

Ganado Fire District (the District) has experienced a negative cash flow for the past five years. This has resulted in an overdraft of the Apache County warrant account in the amount of $ 175,685 at June 30, 2021.The deficit is a direct result of a lawsuit filed against Counties in the State of Arizona by “Centrally Assessed Utilities” resulting in the District being required to refund over $400,000 in property tax money to these utilities. All of the District’s property tax revenue is supplied by these “Centrally Assessed Utilities”. As a result of this lawsuit, property tax valuation for subsequent years was also reduced. The District is exploring options to mitigate the reduction in property tax revenue such as additional annexations into the District. Apache County is aware of the issue and is working with the District to alleviate the problem.

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