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Worksheet Grade 8 Social Studies & Civics

Paying for Fire Protection in Cobbleridge: Flat Charge or Levy

A grade 8 worksheet comparing two ways a town can pay for hydrants and fire flow: a flat charge on every water account or a levy based on assessed property value.

Objectives

  1. Students will calculate what a household pays for fire protection under two financing methods.
  2. Students will find the assessed value at which the two methods charge the same amount.
  3. Students will explain which property owners gain and which lose under each method.

Vocabulary

Key words: hydrant, fire flow, assessed value, levy, tax-exempt

Teacher overview

Fire protection is one of the least visible costs in a water system. Pipes are sized larger, and storage tanks are built taller, than daily household demand requires, because hydrants must deliver a heavy flow for hours during a fire. Someone has to pay for that extra capacity, and towns divide the cost in different ways. This worksheet gives students a fictional town with two financing options and asks them to work out what each option costs particular households. The misconception to address first is the assumption that fire protection, because it is a water-system cost, can be paid only by water customers; under a property levy, owners who never open an account still pay, and under a flat account charge, tax-exempt properties pay their share. Students finish by recommending one method to the council with a number as evidence.

Paying for Fire Protection in Cobbleridge: Flat Charge or Levy — Grade 8 Social Studies & Civics
Name: ____________________________ Date: ______________

Student Worksheet

Cobbleridge is a fictional town. Its water utility spends $420,000 each year on fire protection: hydrant repair, hydrant testing, and the extra pipe and storage capacity that fire flow requires. The council is choosing between two ways to collect that money.

  • Method A, a flat charge: divide the yearly cost evenly among the town's 5,000 water accounts.
  • Method B, a property levy: charge $0.60 for every $1,000 of a property's assessed value.

Cobbleridge has 5,000 water accounts. The town's taxable properties have a total assessed value of $700,000,000, a figure that leaves out the tax-exempt properties. Of the 5,000 accounts, 240 belong to tax-exempt properties such as schools, churches, and the county garage.

  1. Under Method A, what does each account pay for fire protection each year?
  2. Under Method B, what does the owner of a home assessed at $90,000 pay each year?
  3. Under Method B, what does the owner of a home assessed at $300,000 pay each year?
  4. Write an equation for the Method B charge C, in dollars, on a property assessed at v dollars.
  5. Solve an equation to find the assessed value at which Method A and Method B charge the same amount.
  6. Show that Method B raises the full amount the utility needs by applying the rate to the town's taxable assessed value.
  7. Under Method B, how much do the 240 tax-exempt properties pay toward fire protection?
  8. Under Method A, how much do those same 240 accounts pay in total?
  9. Using items 2, 3, and 5, describe which homeowners pay more under Method B than under Method A.
  10. A vacant lot has no water account, yet the fire department still protects it. Explain how that fact supports Method B.
  11. Write two sentences recommending one method to the Cobbleridge council. Use one number from your answers as evidence.

From Water for Schools (waterforschools.org). This material is in the public domain (CC0) and may be copied, edited, and shared freely.

Answer Key
  1. Answer: $84.00 per account.
    420,000 divided by 5,000 accounts = 84.00 dollars for each account each year.
  2. Answer: $54.00.
    90,000 divided by 1,000 = 90 units of assessed value, and 90 x 0.60 = 54.00 dollars.
  3. Answer: $180.00.
    300,000 divided by 1,000 = 300 units, and 300 x 0.60 = 180.00 dollars.
  4. Answer: C = 0.0006v.
    The rate of 0.60 dollars for every 1,000 dollars of value is 0.60 divided by 1,000, or 0.0006 dollars for each dollar of assessed value.
  5. Answer: $140,000.
    Set 0.0006v = 84, so v = 84 divided by 0.0006 = 140,000 dollars of assessed value. A home assessed at exactly that amount pays the same under either method.
  6. Answer: $420,000.
    700,000,000 divided by 1,000 = 700,000 units of assessed value, and 700,000 x 0.60 = 420,000 dollars, which matches the yearly cost.
  7. Answer: $0.
    Tax-exempt properties pay no property levy, so the rest of the town covers their share of the fire protection cost.
  8. Answer: $20,160.
    240 accounts x 84.00 dollars = 20,160 dollars, which those properties would pay under the flat charge because it follows the water account rather than the tax roll.
  9. Answer: Homeowners whose property is assessed above $140,000.
    Item 5 gives the crossing point. Below it, as in item 2, Method B charges less than the 84.00 dollar flat charge; above it, as in item 3, Method B charges more.
  10. Answer: Method B charges every property, including those with no water account.
    Fire protection guards property whether or not anyone at that address buys water, so a levy tied to property value reaches owners a water-bill charge would miss. Accept any answer making that connection.
  11. Answer: Accept any recommendation supported by a number from items 1 through 9.
    A strong response names one method and cites a figure, such as recommending Method B because a home assessed at $90,000 pays $54.00 instead of $84.00, or recommending Method A because it collects $20,160 from tax-exempt properties that a levy would exempt. Reject responses that give no figure.

Differentiation

Support

Work item 2 with the class as a model, writing the two steps separately: first divide the assessed value by 1,000, then multiply by the rate. Give these students items 1, 2, 3, 9, and 11 only, and provide a two-column table for recording each household's charge under both methods.

Extension

Ask students to find what flat charge the fictional town would need if the 240 tax-exempt accounts were excused from paying, and to explain what that change would do to the other households' bills.

ELL supports

Pre-teach "assessed value," "levy," "flat charge," and "tax-exempt" with a labeled example property card showing a value and both charges. Provide the sentence frame for item 11: "The council should choose Method ___ because a home assessed at ___ would pay ___."

Extensions

Water bills in many towns show a separate line for public fire protection. Students can bring in a bill from home, with any account number removed, and compare how their own utility labels and charges that cost with the two methods in this fictional scenario.