Residents of the Los Pinos Fire Protection District will face a tax increase ballot question May 5, in which voters must decide whether to increase their own property taxes to support the district.
In November, Los Pinos officials said the 325-square-mile district would run out of savings in two to four years unless its financial situation changed. Based on community support, the district board of directors voted Monday to ask voters to increase the property tax rate from 3.52 mills to 9.5 mills.
“It makes you nervous,” said Tony Harwig, Los Pinos fire chief. “I really want to offer these people a really good service.”
The 3,000 voters in the Los Pinos area currently pay the lowest fire district mill levy in La Plata County, or about $25 per year for every $100,000 in assessed home value.
The district held nine community meetings to ask voters what they want and what they’ll support. Many community members supported a mill levy of 9.9 mills, which is comparable with Fort Lewis Mesa Fire Protection District, Harwig said.
“It’s a fairly sizable jump, and we want to keep it as low as we possibly can, but still offer what they are asking us to offer them,” Harwig said. “We looked at the numbers and we said, ‘We can borderline do this at 9.5 and give them what they’re asking.’”
If they approve the mill levy increase, their fire district property tax would increase to about $70 per year for every $100,000 in assessed home value.
Other fire district mill levies range from 8.2 mills to 12.42 mills, according to the Colorado Department of Local Affairs. The last time Los Pinos got an increase was in the late 1990s.
Property taxes, which make up the majority of the district’s budget, have been gradually decreasing since at least 2010. State policies, like the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights, and the decline of the oil and gas industry in the region contributed to the falling revenues, district officials said.
Although Los Pinos has about $4 million in savings, the district has had to withdraw money from its reserves. In 2019, it withdrew about $1 million to run its current services – a trend that will continue if income and expenses remain constant.
Crews can respond to only one emergency call at a time, and communities far from Ignacio face longer response times.
“That drive all the way out to Arboles or to Oxford from here in Ignacio – it makes you nervous having to drive that far without any other resources,” Harwig said. “We really want to help those areas out.”
Currently, the district responds to structure and wildland fires, power line issues, gas leaks, heart attacks, car crashes, flooded streets and other emergencies. It offers an advanced life support ambulance service, which gives patients more medical care options during transit than more basic life support ambulance services.
If the mill levy remains at 3.52 mills, the district will have to cut its paramedic ambulance service and become an all-volunteer fire service.
At 9.5 mills, it would be able to keep the ambulance service, have two ambulances instead of one and add a volunteer program to staff more stations in the district.
“What the public wanted was the second ambulance availability, and to keep the first ambulance,” Harwig said. “With the current mill levy ... even that first ambulance is in jeopardy.”
With the issue officially on the ballot, the district turned to the community to create an issue committee, Yes for Los Pinos Fire, which will collect donations and make advertisements.
Clark Craig, co-chairman for the committee, said most community members have been positive about the mill levy increase, with one or two negative reactions.
“They look at it, they kind of wince and they say, ‘This really needs to happen,’” Craig said.
smullane@durangoherald.com
