FIRE chiefs have outlined their budget needs for the coming year.
And if their proposed budget is agreed, the precept in Council Tax payments will increase by 13.5% from £38.55 to £43.75.
The financial report detailing the costs for 2004/05 will be presented at the West Yorkshire Fire Authority meeting this Friday .
Initial funding estimates had to be revised following the national pay settlement and the impact that then had on firefighters' pensions.
Initial figures would have required a precept increase of four per cent on Council Tax bills.
This would have met a budget of £83.4m - an increase of nine per cent.
The increase was to deal with the firefighters' pay increase, a rise in National Insurance contributions, additional costs of pensions and the usual impact of inflation.
However, because of the high number of retirements in 2002/03 the budget figure shunted up to £86.0m - £2.6m more than the initial estimate.
Each one per cent change in the precept provides £250,000 of extra spending.
At a national level, overall increases in planned spending on the fire service will amount to £70m, or 3.9%, on the budget of £1.778bn.