What you need to know:

• A proposed ballot measure would lower property taxes for Caswell-area residents by officially merging the Caswell and Willow fire departments into a single fire service area.
• The departments currently operate as a single unit but are administered as two separate entities under borough law, with two separate tax rates set to pay for them. Caswell residents currently pay a higher rate than Willow residents.
• The change would officially combine the departments and set the fire service tax rate for the area at the lower rate currently used in Willow. The proposal must first be sent to the ballot by the Assembly and then approved by voters in those areas in November.

WILLOW — A proposed Mat-Su Borough ballot measure would reduce property tax bills for some residents by changing how fire services are managed in the Willow and Caswell areas.

The Willow and Caswell fire departments have responded to fires as a single unit throughout a 159-square-mile area since 2015, Matanuska-Susitna Borough officials said. The departments use the same uniform, operate under a single fire chief and share co-branded equipment, borough officials said.

However, the departments are two separate fire service areas under borough law, with separately calculated service costs. As a result, Caswell and Willow taxpayers pay different rates to fund them, officials said.

Residents in Caswell currently pay about $320 per $100,000 in property value, while those in Willow pay about $264, officials said.

If approved, the change would combine the units under the law, eliminate duplicative administrative costs and the two-rate system, and base the price for all residents in the two areas on the lower Willow calculation, according to the proposal.

The proposal must first be placed on ballots by the Assembly and then approved by voters in Willow and Caswell in November. It is scheduled for consideration by the Assembly on Aug. 6.

Several large wildfires have ravaged the Willow and Caswell areas over the past decade, including the 2015 Sockeye Fire, which burned more than 7,000 acres and destroyed dozens of homes, and the 2019 McKinley Fire, which burned a 10-mile stretch along the Parks Highway and destroyed more than 50 homes.

About 2,100 residents live in the Willow and Caswell fire service areas, according to the proposal. 

The two fire service areas currently have two full-time employees, with other responders paid only when they are on call, said Ken Barkley, borough emergency services manager.

If combined, the Willow-Caswell fire service area would be the largest in the borough, Barkley said.

Fire protection in Mat-Su is currently provided through a system of eight fire service areas where residents pay additional taxes to fund those services. The tax rates, known as mill rates, are set annually by the Assembly in the borough budget and are based primarily on density and population in each area, Barkley said.

Residents who do not live in a fire service area do not receive firefighting services from the borough.

If placed on ballots by the Assembly, the consolidation would need to be approved by a majority of Caswell-area voters and, separately, by a majority of Willow-area voters, according to the proposal.

-- Amy Bushatz can be contacted at abushatz@matsusentinel.com.