California homeowners rejected a property tax. Now, fire districts struggle

Yahoo

07-08-2025

Multimillion dollar homes around Folsom Lake in Granite Bay offer exclusive views.
The tree-lined neighborhoods in the suburb — containing the Sacramento region's highest median household income — is at a very high fire risk, according to Cal Fire.
Yet, 53.1% of residents in this wealthy enclave rejected Proposition 218, a fee on properties, in 2022 to raise money for the South Placer Fire District, the local station serving Granite Bay, Loomis and southern portions of Penryn and Newcastle. Two stations out of six shut down in September 2022 as funding streams failed to keep apace with expenditures.
Firefighters for years have raised the alarm about fire protection districts pinching pennies as scant dollars cannot cover soaring costs of fire trucks and equipment. Industry standards recommend replacing each after a certain amount of years to protect first responder. A fire truck can cost $1 million, which at times, can be impossible to buy for small, rural fire protection districts, such as those scattered across Yolo County.
But agencies in well-populated areas — such as Granite Bay and Truckee — also contend with financial shortages. The problems, five fire district chiefs across Yolo and Placer counties say, stem from referendums about taxes and legislative decisions made in the last century which whittled away money.
Prop. 13 limited property tax gathering; Prop. 172 created a public safety sales tax for first responders, but none went to Placer County fire protection districts; and the Legislature also earmarked a certain portion of property taxes must flow to schools.
'How do we keep going in the face of what seems to be a daunting task of the increasing cost?' said South Placer Fire District Chief Mark Duerr, who serves about 38,000 people.
On Tuesday, this struggle reemerged at the Placer County Board of Supervisors. Wayne Nader, a former board member for the North Auburn and Ophir Fire Safe Council, raised concerns during public comment about the difficulties of buying a ladder truck which he said could cost $3 million and take years for it to be delivered.
Fire protection districts are categorized as special districts and only serve a county's unincorporated areas. They are independent from a county's budget and reliant upon funds raised by its communities.
Placer County does not directly give money to fire districts out of its $1.4 billion budget, but has offered support to firefighters by waiving the cost of special elections and offering dispatch services for free, said county spokesperson Chris Gray-Garcia.
Unless changes are made, fire chiefs said, fire protection districts could face increasing challenges to provide services.
'I cannot fathom a world that exists in the next three to five years where small one to two stations can afford to operate,' Duerr said.
How Prop. 13 cut away funding
There have been three cost measures the Placer Hills Protection Fire District — which serves the communities of Applegate, Meadow Vista, Weimar, Clipper Gap and Eden Valley — embarked on in recent years to meet costs.
Residents in the 34 square miles approved Measure A in 2019 to levy a special property tax. The district, containing about 12,500 residents, also approved raises in 2020 and in 2024 to raise fire impact fees.
But those increases do not come close to offsetting capital costs, said Placer Hills Fire Protection District Mark D'Ambrogi in an interview. Residents have been supportive, willing to fork over $300 to $400 per year for medical services and fire protection measures, said Alex Harvey, a Placer Hills Protection Fire District board member.
'There comes a point, though, when you can't keep taking money,' Harvey said.
The main concern for fire chiefs boils down to how exactly Prop. 13 is allocated. California voters approved Prop. 13 in 1978, a watershed decision, limiting property taxes collected by local government.
Before Prop. 13 was approved, municipalities could determine it's own property tax rate based on the land's market value, or the monetary value it would be sold for, according to the California Legislative Analyst's Office. But the new referendum capped property taxes while only assessing properties based on its value at the time of purchase.
'As a result, under Proposition 13 the taxable value of most properties is less than their market value,' according to the Legislative Analyst's Office.
In the South Placer Fire District, only 5 cents from every $1 collected of property tax goes to special districts and distributed to all special districts across Placer County, Duerr said.
There's also a disparity across the fire districts who receive funding. The Placer Hills Fire Protection District gets about 6 cents, while the Newcastle Fire Protection District gets about 3 cents, D'Ambrogi said.
This division in property tax has led to lawsuit between one fire district and Placer County.
The Truckee Fire Protection District — which serves Truckee and other unincorporated areas of Placer and Nevada counties — filed a lawsuit earlier this year alleging Placer County is 'withholding at least $200,000 per year of property taxes from Truckee Fire needed to fund its essential fire safety and medical services.'
The lawsuit alleges county officials withheld property taxes from Martis Valley and areas called 'Zone 7,' required to be allocated under Prop. 13 and Assembly Bill 8, the legislation which codified the tax referendum.
'After years of failed efforts to persuade Placer County to honor the law, Truckee Fire now seeks judicial assistance in righting this historic wrong — before it is too late to protect its communities from wildfire,' according to the lawsuit filed in February.
Placer County denied the allegations, and said enough time has passed that some allegations listed in the lawsuit fail to 'constitute a cause of action,' according to the county's court documents.
In addition, none of the funding allocated for public safety agencies under Prop. 172 in Placer County. The referendum, approved in 1993, created a half-cent sales tax to law enforcement.
The Placer County Sheriff's Office receives the largest amount, with about $46 million, according to the county.
Truckee Fire Chief Kevin McKechnie serves a large district which grows around peak travel times as tourists flock to beautiful California resort. In the summer and winter, the population triples to about 60,000 people, he said.
He commended his community for passing Measure T in 2021, which placed a $179 tax per parcel, and will sunset in eight years. Money raised under this measure can only be spent on fuel reduction and wildfire prevention projects.
But the voter-approved initiative does not allow him to buy fire trucks, pay firefighters or fix stations.
'It's one of the best tools I have right now,' McKechnie said. 'But it is limited.'
Dual worries weigh on McKechnie. To sufficiently provide services to his community, the same personnel must operate different types of equipment, which require different skillset.
He also seeks to buy new fire trucks, some of which he's had for 30 years. But funds are scarce.
'I gotta be honest with you,' he said, 'I don't have a plan for that.'
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