The Carbondale and Rural Fire Protection District is asking voters for two new funding streams on the November ballot.
The special district covers roughly 300 square miles, spanning from Marble to Missouri Heights. Within that region, a combination of volunteer and full-time staff put out fires, conduct swift water rescues and provide emergency medical response and transport with four ambulances.
Ballot Issue 7D would create a 1.5% sales tax, which is estimated to raise $3.7 million annually.
That money would help the department shore up lost revenue, which currently comes from property taxes.
Fire Chief Rob Goodwin said while the department’s call volume has doubled in the past decade, changes at the state level have severely limited the funding they can collect from property owners.
The department estimates those cuts will cost them at least $1 million per year.
At the same time, population growth and increasing wildfire risk are heightening demand. Through August of this year, Carbondale Fire responded to 38 wildland fires in the district, in addition to providing aid to major regional fires like the Lee Fire, South Rim Fire and Turner Gulch Fire.
To make up for the lost property tax revenue, special districts can now collect voter-approved sales taxes.
Goodwin agrees with this setup.
“I believe that local communities ought to decide what level of service they want, and how and whether they want to pay for it,” Goodwin said. “That's good government in my view.”
Fire Chief Rob Goodwin said a sales tax will provide more stable revenue than property taxes and help spread the financial burden.
“Every visitor, every tourist shares the load, right? And I think that's good in a way, because we take a lot of people to the hospital that don't live here,” Goodwin said.
The funding would be used to maintain and grow staffing to meet these rising demands, and to replace aging equipment.
Those costs have ballooned in recent years.
“We've got a ladder truck that's from 1994,” Goodwin said. “It needs to be replaced. In 2020 it was about $1.1 [million]; it's $2.5 [million] now.”
The sales tax would come with a long list of state mandated exemptions on things like groceries, gas and diapers.
Bond question
Carbondale Fire is also asking voters for a $30 million bond, Ballot Issue 7D, to pay for workforce housing, a new station, and upgrade the main station.
The majority of the money would go toward building 24 units of workforce housing spread across Carbondale, Redstone, Marble and Missouri Heights.
Goodwin said it’s getting harder to recruit and retain volunteers who make their operations possible, but housing would help.
“People can't afford to live here, period,” Goodwin said. “If we can make it so that they can live here, or help make it so that they can live here, they're more invested in this community, and we're a better group of responders.”
A smaller portion of the bond, about $7 million, would replace the 50-year-old fire station near Redstone, where Goodwin expects operations to grow in the coming years.
About $1.5 million would help the department upgrade its main station in Carbondale to accommodate career training programs.
If passed, a property tax increase would pay for the bond, which the department estimates would cost homeowners about $200 per year for a $1 million home.
