Supervisors Plan to Add Fire Service Tax : Budget: Levy still faces a final vote. The funds would prevent station closures due to state cutbacks. Most county homeowners would pay $110 next year.

The Ventura County supervisors on Tuesday agreed to move forward with plans to tax most county homeowners $110 next year to help finance Fire Department services.

Without the tax, county Fire Department officials said they would be forced to close nine fire stations, lay off up to 200 employees and decimate paramedic and firefighting efforts to offset a state funding cut of $20 million--nearly 40% of the department’s budget.

Although the supervisors said they did not like the idea of asking property owners to make up for the loss, they said the state has given them no choice. They voted 4 to 0 to proceed with the tax.

“It’s a matter of life and death,” said Supervisor Vicky Howard.

Supervisor Maria VanderKolk added: “I’d rather face an angry taxpayer than a parent who lost a child because we didn’t do something.”

County officials will send out notices on May 14 informing property owners in Thousand Oaks, Simi Valley, Moorpark, Ojai, Camarillo, Port Hueneme and the unincorporated areas of the county that they plan to levy the tax by implementing a special assessment district.

The property owners will then have 45 days to protest the tax, which will come up for a final vote by the supervisors at a public hearing on June 29. If property owners representing 5% of the assessed value file formal complaints about the assessment, the measure must then be decided by a special election next June.

The move to implement the tax has already come under heated criticism from county taxpayer advocates, who say the county is circumventing the spirit of Proposition 13.

“I’m very concerned about public safety,” said H. Jere Robings, executive director of the Ventura County Alliance of Taxpayers. “But when the public voted on Prop. 13, they were voting to cap their property taxes.”

Alliance member Don Hollingsworth said: “I’d like to see none of the firehouses close. But it comes down to: What can we afford?”

According to a consultant’s report prepared for the Fire Department, 133,800 parcels in the county’s service area will be taxed. The taxes vary according to the type of property.

For example, while homeowners could be taxed a flat rate of $110 annually regardless of the value of their houses, owners of mobile homes would be charged $57, according to the report.

The owners of vacant properties, meanwhile, would be charged $10.71 for services, while owners of industrial buildings on 10 or more acres would be assessed $8,139 annually.

The county also has the option of increasing the assessments by 5% each year for 10 years.

Without the funds, response times to emergencies could nearly double to an average of more than six minutes per call, officials said.

“There is no doubt in my mind the public will see the effects of these cuts,” said Fire Chief George Lund. “We will have longer response times, fires will be bigger when we get there and there are certainly going to be cases of injury and death. There is no doubt about it.”

Fire Department officials say they will begin a massive public relations campaign to try to inform local residents about the implications of the state funding cut. If property owners go along with the tax, the assessment will appear on the December property tax bills.

But if the issue is forced to a vote, the Fire Department will begin closing stations and laying off workers July 1, Lund said.

“With no alternative source of funding, we have no choice but to put 200 people out of jobs,” he said.

In addition, the department says it would close nine of its 31 fire stations:

* Station 20: 12727 Santa Paula-Ojai Road, Upper Ojai.

* Station 24: 5777 N. Ventura Ave., North Ventura.

* Station 27: 613 Old Telegraph Road, Fillmore.

* Station 33: 25 Lake Sherwood Drive, Lake Sherwood.

* Station 44: 1050 Country Club Drive, Wood Ranch.

* Station 50: 615 Aviation Way, Camarillo.

* Station 51: 660 E. Rio Drive, Oxnard.

* Station 56: 11677 E. Pacific Coast Highway, Malibu.

* Station 57: 3356 Somis Road, Somis.

Officials said the Fire Department will also consider scaling back the fire stations at 5674 Pacific Coast Highway near Seacliff and at 325 W. Hillcrest Drive in Thousand Oaks if the tax is not implemented.

“If we don’t have the lifesaving capabilities that we do now, we will have tragedies,” Howard said. “We have to take action to do something about this problem.”

Supervisor Susan K. Lacey added: “I don’t think we have a choice. We have a responsibility to provide medical care and fire services.”

NEXT STEP: Ventura County officials will send out notices May 14 informing owners of 133,800 parcels throughout the county that they could be taxed for fire services. The property owners will then have 45 days to protest the tax before the issue comes up for a final vote by the supervisors at a public hearing June 29. If property owners representing 5% of the assessed value file formal complaints about the assessment, the measure must then be decided in a special election next June.