A coastal Oregon fire district is hoping voters approve a new local option tax on Election Day.
The Yachats Rural Fire Protection District is hoping for a $1 per $1,000 increase, to keep half of its firefighters and ambulance service.
YRFPD board member Edward Hallahan says the measure was on last year’s ballot, but wasn’t well-worded.
“’Raise this, and oh by the way, we won’t levy that, and it’s going to net out to this, and then the following year it’s going to be different.’ It was hard for us to understand, and we wrote it.”
Hallahan says prior to that, the district successfully lived off local option taxes for 20 years, while other districts were hurting.
“Reading in the trade publications about a big falloff in volunteerism specifically within the fire service. And we looked at each other and said, ‘Wow, we feel sorry for those people, it hasn’t bothered us at all.’
“Well it bothers us.”
Hallahan says if the measure fails, emergency response may suffer delays or not always be possible. Voters will decide on November 8.
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