No plan to replace Fire District 3 tax on November ballot after voters reject latest effort

With the rejection of the emergency medical services tax proposal in August, Fire District 3 said it has no plan on putting the proposal back on the ballot in November.

In August, voters rejected a proposal that would implement an emergency medical service tax at a cap rate of 50 cents per $1,000 of property value.

Voters voted 54% in favor of the implementation of an EMS tax. The vote, however, required a 60% supermajority vote in order to pass.

While most fire districts have a general fire tax rate and an EMS or Special Maintenance and Operations tax, Fire District 3 only has a general fire tax rate.

“We have the lowest tax of any comparable district in the county,” Fire District 3 Chief Cody Rohrbach said.

This year, the general fire tax levy is at $1.50 per $1,000 of property value. Rohrbach said that rate will drop down to $1.21 per $1,000 of property value next year.

While paying less money may sound great to some property owners, this means even less revenue for Fire District 3 with which to work. Rohrbach said the two main facets of firefighting service that will be affected is response time and the number of personnel available. For residents, Rohrbach worries home insurance rates may go up.

Still, Rohrbach wants voters to gather the information for themselves and then make an educated decision.

“Our mission is to educate the voters,” Rohrbach said.

Fire District 3 operates mainly on volunteer firefighters, which can prove to be a challenging at times with rising call volume.

“Our call volumes have been growing anywhere between 8 to 11% steadily (each year),” Rohrbach said.

Rohrbach said he has aggressively recruited for volunteers but has not had much luck.

“Our workload has outpaced our workforce,” Rohrbach said .

Rohrbach believes tough times and an increase in assessed valuation of property led to the proposal’s rejection. A lot of unforeseen circumstances, like rising inflation and economic hardship, could have also affected voters decision.

“We are going to do the best job we can do with the resources available,” Rohrbach said.