Fire Here, Taxes There

California firefighters have spent 10 years lobbying their counties unsuccessfully for sales tax revenue that was intended for public safety agencies but has primarily been paid to law enforcement and prosecutors.

Frustrated firefighters unions are now considering local voter initiatives to force counties to share the money with cash-strapped fire departments, even if it comes at the expense of cops and prosecutors.

There are significant amounts at stake. Orange County, for instance, has received more than $1 billion from Proposition 172’s 0.5% sales tax increase that voters statewide approved in 1993. By vote of the Board of Supervisors, 80% of the money has gone to the Sheriff’s Department and 20% to the district attorney’s office. The Orange County Fire Authority hasn’t received any of it.

That’s unfair, said Joseph Kerr, a vice president of the California Professional Firefighters Assn. and president of the Orange County Professional Firefighters Assn. He notes that the language in Proposition 172 called for funding of law enforcement, firefighting, criminal prosecution and corrections. It was passed just days after wildfires ravaged several Southern California communities, including Laguna Beach and Malibu.

“It’s what we in fire service call the big lie: You vote for this and money will go to these fire departments. The people who voted for it, they were duped,” Kerr said.

Brad Gates, who was Orange County sheriff at the time, held a news conference in the days before the November 1993 election and urged voters to support the tax increase to help firefighters. “Don’t send those people to war without the right tools to do the job,” Gates said.

Tom Wilson, chairman of the Orange County Board of Supervisors and a member of the Fire Authority’s executive committee, said he plans to meet with local firefighters and sheriff’s officials to negotiate a compromise and avoid a countywide election. He predicted negotiations would be difficult because both the sheriff and district attorney rely on the sales tax money.

“If you subtract from one [agency] to go to another, I think you’re going to end up with the public losing: The sheriff pulls deputies off the streets; the district attorney doesn’t prosecute certain cases,” Wilson said. “If I move this [money] over here, how do I backfill? What do I cut?”

The Fire Authority serves 1.3 million residents in 22 of the county’s 34 cities and in the unincorporated areas. Its executive committee voted this month to allocate up to $100,000 to study whether voters would approve a countywide initiative to force the supervisors to give them some of the sales tax revenue. Committee members said they would give Wilson time to pursue a compromise before spending any of the money on campaign consultants.

Dave Gillotte, president of the union that represents nearly 3,000 Los Angeles County firefighters, says his members are also frustrated.

“Not one dime has gone to the Fire Department,” Gillotte said. “It goes into the general fund and is used for the sheriff and district attorney.”

Though they are not as advanced in the initiative process as Orange County, Los Angeles County firefighters would also consider taking the matter to voters, Gillotte said. The union wants the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors to give the county Fire Department a cut of the roughly $500 million in Proposition 172 revenue sent to the county each year, he said.

The union would be satisfied, he said, if the Board of Supervisors agreed to give the Fire Department a share of any future increase in Proposition 172 revenue, an increase many consider likely as the state’s economy improves.

“If we can’t get that accomplished by way of negotiations, then the other thing we’d be looking at would be a ballot initiative; carry it to the people who voted for it and educate them that the Fire Department gets no money from 172 even though that was the original intent,” Gillotte said.

Eric Peterson, president of the union that represents nearly 200 firefighters in Santa Barbara County, said his members are also considering an initiative. His department gets 2% of the more than $23 million in Proposition 172 money sent to Santa Barbara County agencies each year.

“We made it clear to the Board of Supervisors we’re unhappy about the money we receive. It’s pretty much fallen on deaf ears,” Peterson said. “It’s dicey because it pits us against law enforcement. That’s a crummy place to be.”

Law enforcement officials say they understand the firefighters’ concerns but cannot afford to give up revenue when local governments are facing a reduction in state funding.

Orange County Assistant Sheriff George Jaramillo said his department doesn’t mind sharing some of the Proposition 172 money with firefighters as long as the county compensates the sheriff with other funds.

“The sheriff is not in a position to give away funds that are so critically needed for law enforcement,” Jaramillo said. “But he is not opposed to a redistribution, so long as there is a backfill to the Sheriff’s Department from the Board of Supervisors.”

Firefighters are raising the issue after last fall’s Southland wildfires caused 26 deaths and destroyed more than 3,600 homes. The fires exposed the need for more firefighters, along with new and upgraded fire engines and aircraft throughout the state, Kerr said.

San Diego County, for instance, has no firefighting helicopters and one of the state’s lowest ratios of firefighters per resident. Orange County would like more money to go from 750 to more than 1,000 full-time firefighters, buy new trucks and engines, and invest in an additional firefighting helicopter.

“It will resonate with the citizens, especially in light of the fires,” Kerr said of the possible Orange County initiative. “It’s a matter of time before we get another Laguna firestorm or what we had in October, November.... Politicians aren’t going to want to have blood on their hands for opposing fire departments when there’s smoke in the sky.”

In Orange County, firefighters would need to collect more than 64,000 signatures by July to get their proposal on the November ballot.

Chip Prather, chief of the Orange County Fire Authority, said he believes the public will support the push.

“When you lay out the issue, people say they’re shocked,” he said.

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Fire Authority left out

The Orange County Fire Authority receives none of the funds generated by Proposition 172, a sales tax increase passed in 1993 to help fund public safety agencies. By a Board of Supervisors vote, 80% of the money goes to the Orange County Sheriff’s Department, and the rest goes to the Orange County district attorney’s office.

Allocation of Prop 172 half-cent sales tax increase to Orange County

*--* District attorney Sheriff Total received ‘98-’99 $36,809,981 $147,239,924 $184,049,905 ‘99-’00 $41,231,769 $164,927,076 $206,158,845 ‘00-’01 $44,712,309 $178,849,236 $223,561,545 ‘01-’02 $42,948,905 $171,795,622 $214,744,527 ‘02-’03 $43,597,278 $174,389,113 $217,986,391

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Source: County of Orange