Only one local measure on the November ballot affects every single voter in San Diego County, and that’s Proposition A, the new fire tax. On the anniversary of fires that sent half a million San Diegans fleeing from their homes, voters will be asked to consider paying a dollar a week for more fire protection. KPBS reporter Alison St John has more.
Anyone looking at San Diego from across the country would say it’s a no-brainer: of course residents must wake up and put more resources towards fighting fires. But one problem with the proposed fire tax on the ballot is, surprise, surprise . . politics.
The man behind the plan is County Supervisor Ron Roberts.
Roberts : We realize with climate change and all the things that are going on, this is increasingly going to be a dangerous place to be in certain times of the year.
Roberts put together a group of mayors and fire chiefs, and they came up with an -across -the- board parcel tax to pay for better fire protection.
People with more than 50 acres of land, or buildings bigger than 10,000 square feet, would pay more, but most property owners would pay a flat $52 a year.
Dalager: It’s a boondoggle.
Dan Dalager, an Encinitas city councilman, is against the $50 million parcel tax.
Dalager: This isn’t about fire protection, this is about them building their own little fiefdom out there and letting us pay for it.
Dalager calls Prop A a money grab. He says if Supervisors would commit the $2 million a year in tax money they each have in personal discretionary funds, that would be a $10 million start to building a fire fighting fund.
Dalager: They want us to pay for everything and then they want to have all the power on the board.
The board is a Joint Powers Authority that would be set up under Prop A, to spend $25 million of the $50 million raised each year.
The County would, in fact, only have one seat on the ten member JPA board.
Supervisor Diane Jacob says creating the Joint Powers Authority is vital for a County with no regional fire coordination.
Jacob : cos that is the area that is most desperately fragmented, most desperately in need of funding and beefing up
Some critics say San Diego doesn’t need another bureaucracy, and the money raised by Prop A should go to equipment, like fire trucks and boots on the ground.
But even San Diego city fire chief Tracy Jarman says creating a Joint Powers Authority is a good use of the money
Jarman : I think you need to do both, to help us better coordinate, as well as to have the resources that the public needs.
The other half the money raised by the tax, about $25 million a year, would go back to cities and fire districts to spend on building up their own fire fighting resources.
But cities along the coast are not convinced they’re getting a fair shake. The wildfires last year started in the back county, so why should urban dwellers have to subsidize the rural areas, they ask.
Because, says Bill Metcalf, Chief of North County’s Fire Protection District , the Santa Ana winds blow west.
Metcalf : Total evacuations were half a million people, and those people were evacuated out of the coastal communities. So it’s something that affects every one of us, and it is a regional issue that we face.
City councilman Dan Dalager is not convinced.
He says the city of Encinitas already spends $10 million on fire protection for 20 square miles. County Supervisors spent $15 million this year for 4,000 square miles of unincorporated area, and last year they spent half that.
Dalager: We’re 100 percent for fire protection for the entire county, but you can tell who wrote this up with whose benefit in mind.
UCSD professor Steve Erie , a member of the region’s Fire Safety Forum , is also critical of the Board of Supervisors’ failure to take more responsibility for fire protection. But he reluctantly supports Proposition A anyway, because, he says, San Diego urgently has to do more to protect itself.
Erie : This is the smallest of steps forward, but once the board passed it, we decided to let the voters decide, because it's better than nothing.
With another fire season ahead, voters are being asked whether to let prudence take precedence over politics.
Alison St John, KPBS News.
