Amidst the maze of ballot propositions on the November ballot, there’s one you might have missed. It’s called Measure E, as in “emergency,” that raises the tax on residential and commercial properties to bolster fire and paramedic responses in Los Angeles County.
Those who don’t see Measure E on their mail-in ballot, don’t panic. Measure E is only before voters who live in unincorporated county communities such as Hacienda Heights and Topanga, and 60 cities who contract with the L.A. County Fire Department and are part of the county’s Consolidated Fire Protection District.
Residents who live in bigger cities such as Los Angeles, Long Beach, Pasadena, Glendale or Burbank, and some smaller ones, are not affected.
Measure E will assess properties a tax of 6 cents per square foot of structural improvements, not including parking. The measure will generate about $152 million annually.
“It would be used to upgrade equipment, such as replacing old fire engines. Some are 27 years old. As well as help close the staffing gap and modernize the 911 system,” said Douglas Herman, spokesperson for the Yes on Measure E campaign.
According to the campaign, here are some ways the extra tax dollars would help the fire department’s performance and shorten response times:
• Replacing old fire engines, some nearly three decades old. “This is like relying on a decades-old mechanically questionable family car for emergencies,” according to the campaign.
• Modernizing fire and paramedic equipment. For example, the department could deploy thermal imaging cameras to pinpoint fire victims. Also money would go to defibrillators, emergency supplies and protective gear.
• Hiring more paramedics. In about two-thirds of calls, fire crews go out short-staffed, the campaign reported, despite the rise in the number of calls. Call volumes have increased 50% over the last 10 years, the campaign reported.
• Improving 911. With most calls coming from cell phones on a system built for land-line calls, the connections are strained. Often the location of the fire or emergency is not immediately clear; it takes longer to pinpoint fires, victims or traffic accidents, the campaign said.
“This money is not going into the general fund. It goes straight into the fire protection district,” Herman said.
That feeds into the opposition from the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, which wrote the ballot argument against the measure, as well as the rebuttal to the argument in favor.
While the district gets its funding from property taxes assessed for the fire department, the department is overseen by the Board of Supervisors, which recently passed a $49 billion county budget.
“If the county won’t pay $150 million a year for lifesaving equipment for the fire department, voters should ask, ‘What’s in the budget that’s a higher priority?’ ” concluded the Howard Jarvis taxpayer group.
Another part of the taxpayer group’s opposition is the way the measure got on the ballot and the advantage it lends to its adoption.
Members of the IAFF Local 1014, the union that represents 3,400 L.A. County Fire Department employees, collected more than 180,000 signatures on a petition to qualify the measure. The Board of Supervisors voted to place it on the Nov. 5 ballot.
Because it is termed “a citizens’ petition,” the measure bypasses the required two-thirds vote normally needed to raise taxes. Measure E only needs a simple majority to pass.
The Howard Jarvis group wrote in an emailed response that this amounted to using “a court-created loophole to evade the constitutional requirement for a two-thirds vote of the people to raise local taxes. The courts have said the constitution doesn’t apply to a tax increase proposed by a citizens’ initiative. We think that’s wrong.”
They also argue that the cost of housing is already too high in L.A. County and that raising that cost with higher taxes will cut into tight residential budgets and could cause higher rents.
The group reminds voters that in 2020, a similar measure failed because it did not get two-thirds of the vote, which is not a requirement this time.
The Yes on Measure E website says the L.A. County Fire Department funding has not kept up with the cost of fires that are more frequent and more damaging, and that the extra funding will help the department catch up.
“Fire danger is up. Emergency calls have exploded. Funding has not kept up,” according to the Yes on Measure E website.
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