ARCHER LODGE - To get a bigger piece of the state-money pie, Archer Lodge leaders want the local fire tax to come through town hall. The Archer Lodge Fire Department would rather it not.

Property owners in the Archer Lodge fire district pay a 7-cent fire tax per $100 valuation. The county collects that money and funnels it to the fire department. Town leaders say Archer Lodge would benefit from pooling the fire tax with the 8-cent property tax.

If the fire tax goes through the town, Archer Lodge would get about $350,000 in state-shared revenue next fiscal year, said Councilman Carlton Vinson. If it stays in fire department coffers, the town would get about $170,000, he said.

At a Town Council meeting last week, Fire Chief Pete Barnes said he hoped the fire tax would stay with the department. "It's worked very well," he said. "We believe at the fire department, if it's not broke, we don't want to fix it."

Barnes said he feared the town might be tempted to spend fire department money if it got in a financial pinch. Also, Barnes said he doesn't want to have to attend Town Council meetings come budget time.

Barnes said the department didn't know town leaders wanted to roll the fire tax into town coffers until he read about it in a newspaper. Before voters agreed last fall to make Archer Lodge a town, the fire department sent community leaders a letter that said the fire tax would continue to go through the county.

At its meeting last week, the Town Council agreed to remove $90,000 in fire-tax revenue from the budget year that ends June 30.

"It's kind of like that Ferrari I put in my budget every year," Vinson said. "We just took it off to clear any confusion."

Eventually, the town wants to contract with the Archer Lodge Fire Department "or some other entity" for fire service, Vinson said.

"Obviously, our goal is through the Archer Lodge Fire Department," he said. "Basically, we want to work out an agreement."

Before Archer Lodge incorporated, it listed four services it would provide to residents: planning and zoning, water, police protection and fire service.

The town still wants to offer planning, police and fire, Vinson said. But town leaders are considering street lighting in place of water. It would help keep the tax rate steady, Vinson said.

Last week, the council approved a budget of about $118,000 for the remainder of the fiscal year.