Voters on Tuesday approved a request to allow the Upper Pine River Fire Protection District to keep the funds it is currently receiving from property taxes.
Ballot Issue 7A allows the district to opt out of the Gallagher amendment.
Early Wednesday morning, 2,888 voters had approved the request, or 59 percent of voters in the fire district. There were 2,044 no votes, for 41 percent of the votes cast.
"We DO NOT need any more money; we are asking to keep what you are already giving us," Upper Pine wrote on its Facebook page before the election.
Colorado voters approved the Gallagher Amendment in 1982, and it states property taxes on homes can account for only 45 percent of property taxes that special districts receive.
Exploding home prices on the Front Range have knocked that funding formula out of whack, resulting in cuts to budgets in rural fire districts.
"We really wish the state Legislature would have fixed this, but unfortunately, they did not," Chief Bruce Evans wrote on the district's Facebook page.
