08/15/2026
There is a lot to unpack here, but a few facts shouldn’t be lost in the political rhetoric.
First, the Woodford County Fire Protection District does not collect property taxes from the Yokohama property. The Yokohama facility is located within the City of Versailles, which is outside the taxing jurisdiction of the Woodford County Fire Protection District. So claiming the Fire District is losing tax revenue because the county purchased Yokohama is, at best, misleading and simply inaccurate. The City and the County are not interchangeable when it comes to property ownership, taxing jurisdictions, or tax revenue.
Second, the suggestion that a “smaller, less experienced fire district” is somehow being put in charge of responding to a distillery fire is equally misleading. The issue being discussed is a Fire Board appointment—not replacing experienced firefighters with inexperienced firefighters. The Fire Board is not responsible for responding to fires. Our professional and volunteer firefighters are and I for one am not calling our county fire department “less experienced”.
Third, the claim that the Fire District is being squeezed because the barrel tax is phasing out deserves some actual numbers behind it. In recent years, the Fire District has actually seen increased revenue from distilled-spirits taxation, not simply a declining revenue stream as this post suggests. If we're going to argue about the Fire District's finances, let's use the actual financial records rather than lumping every conceivable concern into one political narrative.
And finally, if you're going to run for county office and make the Fire District's finances a central campaign issue, you really ought to be able to distinguish between the City of Versailles and Woodford County when discussing who owns property, who taxes it, and who receives the revenue.
Confidence is great. Confidence while getting the underlying facts wrong is a considerably more dangerous combination—especially when you're asking voters to trust you with county government.
We should absolutely have a serious conversation about funding our fire protection, replacing aging equipment, recruiting firefighters, and preparing for the risks associated with our growing bourbon industry.
But that conversation deserves facts, not fear, and certainly not facts that change depending on the political argument being made.
Woodford County's fire protection is under pressure, and District 2 has the most to lose.
District 2 is home to two distilleries. In 2019, Woodford County found out just how difficult a distillery fire can be. They burn fast, they're hard to contain, and they demand more water, equipment, and manpower than almost any other fire type. That's not a job for a smaller, less experienced fire district. That's exactly the scenario a strong county fire district exists for.
Meanwhile the District is getting squeezed from every direction: inflation, revenue lost to county purchased property (Yokohama), the Barrel Tax phasing out, tax exemptions handed out through potential Industrial Revenue Bonds, and fewer volunteers every year. On top of that, the District needs to replace an engine and a tanker, roughly $1 million in equipment.
The county keeps making it worse. Every time local government buys land, that land comes off the tax rolls. The tax base funding our essential services keeps shrinking while the demands on those services keep growing.
And here's the part that gets left out of this debate. The Fire Board has held the rate at 73 cents per $1,000 of assessed value for two straight years. Jessamine, Anderson, and Mercer counties are all at $1. We're getting fire protection at a discount and some people still want to cut it. Every other taxing district in Woodford County is increasing their revenue, why should the Fire District cut theirs?
I stand behind John Varner and the Woodford County Fire Board. John has spent more than 40 years protecting this community. Pushing out that kind of experience while our risks are growing, not shrinking, is reckless.
I stand with the Magistrates that voted against this and seriously question the motives of those that proposed and voted for this unnecessary change.
Fire protection isn't a bargaining chip. Lives, homes, farms, and businesses depend on getting this right.
