Firefighters Will Ask Supervisors to Consider Tax : Protection: The levy would affect residents and businesses in 50 cities and unincorporated areas served by county stations.

The Los Angeles County Fire Department will ask the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday to endorse a proposal to raise the property taxes of residents and businesses in 50 cities and unincorporated county areas that are served by county fire stations.

If the tax is ultimately approved by the board, $13.99 will be added to the fall property tax bills of the 519,000 homeowners in the Consolidated Fire Protection District. With board approval, the fire tax could be increased up to four times--to $55.96--in future years.

Depending on building size, apartment owners in the district will be charged up to $561 this year and commercial building owners up to $1,176.

The district includes most of the county’s smaller cities and communities, including Lancaster and Palmdale, Santa Clarita, Agoura Hills, Hidden Hills, Calabasas and Malibu.

Without the estimated $15.3 million in fire tax revenues added to the proposed $266-million 1991-92 budget, district residents face a serious decline in fire services, including slower emergency response times and the closure of five stations and three engine companies, Chief Deputy Earl Fordham said.

On Tuesday, supervisors will be asked to schedule a July 25 public hearing on the proposed tax.

Although Proposition 13, passed by voters in 1978, limits property taxes to 1% of the assessed value of the property at the time of purchase, state law allows local agencies to form assessment districts for specific services such as fire prevention, flood control, roads and schools.

If protests are received from property owners whose payments would represent at least 5% of the $15.3-million tax assessment, supervisors, under state law, would be prohibited from levying the new tax without a vote of the people.

The county Fire Department requested a fire tax once before, in 1987. It was turned down by the supervisors. Fordham said he was optimistic that the new tax will be approved because the political climate has changed in the wake of deep state budget cuts that threaten vital services.

But representatives of some of the affected areas predicted there will be substantial opposition. The fire tax request, while nominal, follows imposition of countywide taxes on utilities and recycling fees as well as regional assessments for roads and schools. Fire district residents already pay an average of 17 cents out of each property tax dollar toward fire protection, said John Gee, the Fire Department’s chief planner.

“What’s happening is you’re finding a lot of folks coming back to the well at this point trying to deal with the budget crunch,” said Dennis Washburn, mayor of the recently formed city of Calabasas. “Even though it sounds like any one component is a nominal fee, taken cumulatively these various requests for assessments or taxes or fees add up.”

The additional money generated by the tax would allow the department to fill 48 firefighter positions left vacant in January after a $4.1-million revenue shortfall was predicted, Gee said.

About 50 more firefighters would be hired, he said, and the district could avoid $7.2 million in cutbacks planned for later this year, which would require closure of the five fire stations and three engine companies.

Final decisions have not been reached on which stations would close, Fordham said. He would not identify the probable closure targets for fear that residents outside those areas would oppose the tax.

Supervisor Mike Antonovich, who represents residents of the Santa Clarita, Antelope and San Gabriel valleys who would be taxed under the proposal, generally opposes tax increases. But his press deputy, Dawson Oppenheimer, said Antonovich is still looking at the fire district proposal because of his concern about adequate fire protection.

Supervisor Ed Edelman, whose district includes Calabasas, Malibu and Agoura Hills, plans to vote for the tax, said his spokesman, Joel Bellman.

But the situation that helped Edelman reach his decision--a planned closure of the Lake Chatsworth Fire Station--would not be directly affected by the tax because it is not within the Consolidated Fire District.

The Lake Chatsworth station is paid for out of the forester and fire warden budget, Fordham said, as are stations in other sparsely populated parts of the county. But he said that if the department’s overall fiscal health improves through the tax, closure of Lake Chatsworth might not be necessary.