Ahead of approving a budget for the upcoming fiscal year, the Buncombe County Board of Commissioners will carefully consider tax increase requests from 12 of the County’s 20 Fire Districts. The increase proposals range from 0.8-cents to 5.5-cents and would represent about $2.5 million in new revenues. For the current Fiscal Year 2018 budget, the County’s Fire Districts receive a combined $25 million. While Fire Districts are not part of the General Fund, for comparison, this equates to approximately 8 percent of the County’s operating budget. The proposed budget for Fiscal Year 2019 would give Fire Districts $29 million, or 9 percent.