FIRST REGULAR SESSION

HOUSE BILL NO. 176

93RD GENERAL ASSEMBLY

INTRODUCED BY REPRESENTATIVES ROORDA (Sponsor), WALSH, MEADOWS, WILDBERGER, HENKE, PAGE AND OXFORD (Co-sponsors).Read 1^st time January 6, 2005 and copies ordered printed.

STEPHEN S. DAVIS, Chief Clerk

0807L.01I

AN ACT

To amend chapter 321, RSMo, by adding thereto one new section relating to fire protection districts, with an emergency clause.

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the state of Missouri, as follows:

            Section A. Chapter 321, RSMo, is amended by adding thereto one new section, to be known as section 321.222, to read as follows:

            321.222. Fire protection districts located within a county of the first classification with more than one hundred ninety-eight thousand but fewer than one hundred ninety-nine thousand two hundred inhabitants serving an area annexed by a municipality which maintains a fire department, including simplified boundary changes, shall continue to provide fire protection services to such area. The annexing municipality shall pay annually to the fire protection district an amount equal to that which the fire protection district would have levied on all taxable property within the annexed area. Such annexed area shall not be subject to taxation for any purpose thereafter by the fire protection district except for bonded indebtedness by the fire protection district, which existed prior to the annexation. The amount to be paid annually by the municipality to the fire protection district under this section shall be a sum equal to the annual assessed value multiplied by the annual tax rate as certified by the fire protection district to the municipality, per one hundred dollars of assessed value in such area. The tax rate so computed shall include any tax on bonded indebtedness incurred subsequent to such annexation, but shall not include any portion of the tax rate for bonded indebtedness incurred prior to such annexation. Notwithstanding any other provision of law to the contrary, the residents of an area annexed on or after the effective date of this section may vote in all fire protection district elections and may be elected to the fire protection district board of directors.

            Section B. Because immediate action is necessary to ensure continuous and uninterrupted fire protection services to individuals affected by this act, section A of this act is deemed necessary for the immediate preservation of the public health, welfare, peace and safety, and is hereby declared to be an emergency act within the meaning of the constitution, and section A of this act shall be in full force and effect upon its passage and approval.