Inyo Board supports Lone Pine Fire District Parcel Tax
The Inyo County Board of Supervisors offered its unanimous support for a new parcel tax, Measure D, at last week’s Board meeting in Independence. District 5 Supervisor Matt Kingsley presented the proposed $100 per parcel tax, which would generate an estimated $80,000 for the Lone Pine Fire District.
Kingsley supported the measure both as a Lone Pine representative, and as a former Lone Pine Volunteer Fire Department Commissioner and Federal Wildland Fire Chief.
He noted the parcel tax would sunset in 10 years, or cease earlier than that if the Fire District is unable to provide services.
This is the first parcel tax measure proposed to solve the problem of financing fire districts in Inyo County. The growing gap between fire service revenues and expenditures is the product of static property tax revenue, which pays for fire services, and rising Emergency Medical Service (EMS) costs, which come out of fire district pockets, as well as rising costs of fire service equipment, fuel, and utilities.
In January of this year, fire district chiefs from Bishop, Big Pine, Independence, Lone Pine, Olancha, and Southern Inyo came together to consider options for generating revenue. Lone Pine decided to pursue a parcel tax.
In January, Lone Pine Fire Chief Leroy Kritz explained that his Fire District has two separate budgets, one for fire service and one for EMS. Fire service is funded, as in most County fire districts, by property tax. EMS, on the other hand, per State law, “has to be self supported,” he said.
Kritz added that fire service typically costs about $150,000 a year. EMS costs about $118,000.
“Usually we collect more than that, but in the last three years, we’ve done less,” he said in January. “We’ve only collected $30,000. That’s why we’re going for a parcel tax.” (Kritz was on vacation this week and could not be reached for further comment.)
Board of Supervisors Chair Linda Arcularius said she was not aware of other County fire districts looking into a parcel tax similar to Lone Pine’s at this time, “although as funding becomes harder and harder to maintain and as training and recruitment challenges continue, as well as costs for delivering services continue to escalate for all fire districts, I would certainly believe that discussions are ongoing at all levels,” she said.
While other districts in Inyo County may not be pursuing a parcel tax, Paradise in Mono County is pursuing an increase to an existing parcel tax, Measure F, to cover that fire district’s expenses.
Mono County Supervisor Fred Stump explained that Measure F would not be helping to cover EMS services, as Paradise Fire District only offers fire service. “Their struggles are much more basic,” he said. “They need money to pay for insurance and utilities, and to maintain equipment … They need enough money to survive.”
Stump said he believed the Paradise Fire District annual income is less than $20,000.
Measure F would raise the existing parcel tax for improved residential from $100 to $240; for unimproved from $36 to $86; and for unimproved commercial from $257 to $617.
Although Supervisor Stump said he would neither support Measure F nor speak out against it, “Being able to engage in long-term and medium-term planning, knowing you have a revenue stream, would be beneficial,” he said.
Given the volunteer nature of these small fire districts in both Mono and Inyo Counties, “I think small communities are lucky that they get the level of service they do,” Stump concluded.
In Inyo, as Kingsley wrote in a letter of support for Measure D, “It would be far easier for Chief Kritz and the Fire Department to simply revert back to providing only fire protection services, but where would that leave our community? Without a rapid, local emergency medical response resource, our residents, both young and old, would be at risk.”
He noted that cutting staffing from a completely volunteer Fire Department and ambulance service is not an option; nor is reducing equipment supply cost, “without compromising both public and staff safety.
“I know that no one wants to levy additional taxes,” he wrote. “I also realize that the $100 parcel tax will be an added burden and difficult for many of my constituents to pay. But I also know that a local tax earmarked to maintain a specific, vital service is a tax that I find tolerable.
“The $100 per year seems a small price to pay to avoid the very real possibility of not having local ambulance service.”
Inyo County residents will vote on Measure D, which requires a two-thirds majority, on Nov. 4. Without this parcel tax, according to Kingsley’s presentation, the Lone Pine Fire District will cease ambulance service in Area 4, from Ash Creek in the south to George’s Creek in the north, and Death Valley National Park in the east to trailheads in the west, as of Jan. 1, 2015.
