Voters in Durango Fire Protection District’s jurisdiction have approved a property tax increase for the department.
There were two questions: Question 2A, which went to voters in Durango, and question 7A, which went to La Plata and San Juan county voters within the district. Results indicate that 55% of city voters supported Question 2A and 51% of La Plata County voters supported Question 7A.
Vote totals from San Juan County were not immediately available, but only a small number of residents live in that part of the district – not enough to flip the results, according to La Plata County Clerk and Recorder Tiffany Lee.
The department has been seeking a mill levy increase to be approved by voters. The funds raised will be used to construct, staff and equip a new fire station in Three Springs.
The station would address heightened call volume in that part of the community and increase DFPD’s effectiveness throughout the rest of the district, Black said.
Black declined to comment on the vote totals until Wednesday, once votes from San Juan County are finalized.
Earlier on Tuesday, Black said the department went with a property tax rather than a sales tax to even the burden of funding the station across the district.
“If we did sales tax, 92% of it was going to come from the city, and 8% was going to come from the county part of our district,” Black said. “So there is a pretty big mismatch of where the revenue was coming from, with (DFPD’s) services evenly provided to both the county and the city at almost a 50-50 rate.”
Black said a property tax would spread that burden equally between the city and the county. Additionally, the amount of taxes a homeowner payed would be proportional to the value of residents’ houses, Black said.
sedmondson@durangoherald.com
