Voters in Santa Clarita, Lancaster and numerous smaller cities and unincorporated county communities that are part of the Consolidated Fire Protection District of Los Angeles County will find Measure E on their Nov. 5 ballot to increase property taxes to pay for fire and emergency medical services.
The tax doesn’t apply and so won’t appear on ballots in Los Angeles, Long Beach, Glendale, Pasadena and more than 20 smaller cities with their own EMS.
The measure would impose a tax of 6 cents per square foot on most properties in the district. The estimated $152 million it would raise annually would support the county Fire Department, which gets nothing from the county’s general fund and operates almost exclusively on revenue raised by parcel taxes raised under a 1997 measure.
Before that, the fire district had the authority to impose a tax on its own, including increases to keep up with rising costs. But it lost that power after voters adopted tax-slashing Proposition 218 in 1996. Now it must ask voters.
No one enjoys paying more taxes. But this one pays for essential fire protection to properties in the district. And perhaps more important, it would allow the county Fire Department to save more lives by responding faster and with better paramedic services to treat grave injuries sustained (for example) in car collisions or natural disasters such as earthquakes and wildfires.
The Times recommends a yes vote on Measure E.
Voters in the fire district had a substantially similar measure before them in 2020. A majority of voters said yes, but it wasn’t enough. Measure FD needed a two-thirds vote to pass, and it fell short.
Measure E is different because it’s a voter initiative that landed on the ballot because of a signature-gathering campaign. It needs only a simple majority.
Does the county Fire Department really need more money to do its work?
Yes. The role of fire departments has changed drastically in the last quarter century, as has the nature of disasters and the technology and training available to respond.
Southern California has always lived with wildfire danger, but recent droughts and higher temperatures fueled by climate change have challenged responders in new ways. An after-action report following the deadly 2018 Woolsey fire found that neighboring agencies were unable to offer their usual assistance because they were dealing with two concurrent wildfires. We can expect more disasters like that one.
At the same time, the department has seen an increase in 911 calls of more than 45% in the decades since the 1997 tax was approved. That may be because the population has grown, and the need for emergency services along with it. It also may be because technology has improved, leading residents to expect better and more rapid assistance — as they should.
But the department lacks sufficient equipment and infrastructure to communicate directly with hospital emergency rooms, to locate victims with thermal imagery and to extract crash victims from cars. It needs more funding to upgrade and maintain water-dumping aircraft.
The money also would permit hiring and training more paramedics, to ensure there is someone on each responding fire engine to assess needs at the scene and advise dispatchers more quickly on whether they should send an additional paramedic unit and an ambulance. That could help the department to steward its resources more efficiently in the long run, as it comes to the assistance of more people in need.
