At the rate things are moving, one financial projection shows that the Palos Fire Protection District will be broke by April 2014.

Ed McCormick, an auditor from Mulcahy, Pauritsch, Salvador and Co., told trustees on Tuesday that the district’s revenues have not kept pace with expenses and that fund balances will be completely eroded in about two and a half years unless something changes.

The Palos Fire Protection District includes Palos Park and portions of Palos Heights, Orland Park and unincorporated Palos Township. 

In another attempt to stabilize finances, the fire district’s board approved referendum language for the March 2012 ballot that would increase local tax bills. It states that property taxes would rise by $82.50—or $1.64 a week—for every $100,000 of assessed value. 

Fire district attorney Thomas Courtney insisted that this represents a maximum figure, one that doesn’t account for certain property exemptions, which not every homeowner is eligible, but which make tax bills lighter. It should, he added, make the tax rate comparable to other districts with similar population and estimated assessed values.

A previous referendum failed in April 2011 by 264 votes. 

But for some Palos firefighters, exhalation is premature. Starting Jan. 1, 2012, the district will cut one to two men per shift, causing the remaining men to rotate collectively between one of two firehouses depending on the day, said Fire Chief Steve Carr.

The board and staff have “done everything in our power to overturn every stone to look for where and how we can save operational costs,” Carr said. “But by delaying these expenses it doesn’t make them go away…

“We still need to make cuts, and in order to do that it’s going to come down to staffing cuts, which will end up in service cuts.”

Because cuts would mean longer response times for particular parts of their coverage area at certain times, Trustee Russell Miller likened living in the district to spinning a roulette wheel.

“We’re very proud of our men,” Board President Kevin McCurrie said. “We just don’t have the money.”

If approved by taxpayers, referendum money wouldn’t flow into the district until September 2013. To continue paying their bills in the meantime, fire commissioners signed agreements with First Midwest Bank for $1.2 million in tax anticipated warrants—which are essentially loans repaid through property tax dollars, plus interest.

Courtney said the bank wasn’t willing to keep a line of credit open without a more secure form of collateral, but it worked out for the best because the interest rate was lower than a regular loan.

Also approved Tuesday was the district’s 2011 tax rate, a best-guess composite of the value of property within in the district, new property values and the rate of inflation. Carr noted that it's unlikely the inflation rate would even keep pace with rises in gasoline, let alone the number of repairs needed to maintain an aging vehicle fleet.

At $5,298,687, the new tax levy represents about a $200,000 increase over last year, though it doesn’t necessarily reflect what the district will receive. As it stands, Carr said, the 2011 tax levy is on par with the one from 1984.

Tuesday’s meeting was broadcast live on local television from the Palos Park Village Hall. From the podium during the public comment portion of the evening Bob Walsh, a resident, entreated the board to regularly broadcast meetings so that the taxpaying public could stay up to date.