Firefighters Seek New Tax to Offset Cuts : Assessment: Supporters of a county levy that would average $115 per parcel warn of increased danger due to dense brush.

Ventura County firefighters made a public plea Tuesday for a new property tax to offset expected budget cuts, saying this year’s wildfire season could be worse than usual because of extraordinary growth of grass and brush.

County Fire Chief George Lund urged county supervisors and property owners to support the tax--which would average $115 per parcel of land--to cushion the impact of a possible $20-million drop in state revenue.

The County Fire District, which weathered a 12% reduction in state funding last year, could lose seven of its 31 fire stations and a third of its firefighters in this year’s cuts, Lund said.

“Already we’re holding off on buying safety equipment,” Lund said. “If we don’t find the money this year, we could be looking at a real public safety risk.”

Lund was one of a dozen officials representing Firescope California, a group of Southern California fire protection agencies that gathered at Wildwood Regional Park in Thousand Oaks to discuss the impact of shrinking budgets on service.

Next Tuesday, Lund plans to ask the county Board of Supervisors to approve the special assessment on property owners in the fire district’s service area, which includes Thousand Oaks, Simi Valley, Moorpark, Ojai, Camarillo and Port Hueneme as well as unincorporated areas.

Supervisor Maggie Kildee said she would be reluctant to support the assessment, but added that she knows of no alternative.

“There is no good way to address the problem,” she said. “I don’t know whether we ought to levy the assessment, but it would give the people a chance to take it to a vote.”

If the supervisors approve the assessment, opponents could seek to put the issue on the June, 1994, ballot. To do that, property owners representing 5% of the taxable land--an estimated 8,700 land owners--would have to petition for an election, Lund said.

Putting the measure on the ballot would mean a year’s delay in funding, which could leave the fire district in bad shape, Lund said. If the issue does not go on the ballot, the assessment would appear on tax bills in December.

“We’re looking at other revenue sources, but this is the best we’ve come up with so far,” Lund said.

He said the funds are especially needed this year because heavy winter rains have helped the growth of grass and brush, which are primary causes of fire.

“People get confused because we’ve been saying the drought was the reason there was a high fire risk,” Lund said. “But grass is like a matchstick, and once all this year’s growth dries out, we’re going to be dealing with a lot of matchsticks.”

Meanwhile, U.S. Forest Service firefighters said they expect to receive an additional $600,000 in federal money this year to combat fires in the Los Padres National Forest.

The money was awarded after a study found a high fire probability in the forest, said Earl Clayton, a spokesman for the forest service. About a third of the Los Padres National Forest is in Ventura County.

Clayton said the forest service will continue lending equipment and manpower to aid the Ventura County Fire District in fighting blazes during the brush fire season, which officially begins May 1.

But the service’s 17 fire trucks and two helicopters--spread over the nearly 2-million-acre forest--would not compensate for the county’s expected loss in state funding, Clayton said.

“Naturally we’ll provide everything we can in order to assist,” Clayton said. “But we anticipate a busy year too, and we might not be able to give any more than in the past.”

The Ventura branch of the state Department of Forestry and Fire Protection will also lend a hand, Fire Capt. Gerald Carpenter said. “These cuts don’t impact us since most of our labor comes without charge from inmates and wards of the state.”

Statewide reductions in firefighting funding will cut into services in other counties and hinder their ability to aid Ventura County, said Mike Scherr, deputy chief for the state Office of Emergency Services.

In past years, he said, “We’ve had fire trucks from L.A. and Ventura as far north as the Oregon coast. Now we’re going to have to limit what agencies in one county can afford to do for other counties.”