Measure A, which would have helped fund Calaveras County fire departments through a 1% sales tax increase, was one of the most talked about measures on the ballot for the Nov. 8 midterms. Failing to pass by a narrow margin of 262 votes, some are wondering how local fire departments might be affected.
John Rohrabaugh, fire chief for Angels Camp and Altaville, told the Enterprise, “We'll just have to look at our stuff. For the city, there won't be any change based on what we currently are doing.”
He continued, “With the district, we're all volunteers at Altaville/Melones as we pay our firefighters a stipend of $100 per 24 hours that they work, which really equivalents to $4.16 an hour.”
Rohrabaugh said that, because of this, it can be difficult to keep staffing rates at optimal levels. He said that the next step will be to discuss these issues at the department's upcoming board meetings
“We'll have a board meeting to reevaluate what the budget will be, and then have a meeting with our staff to see how they want to move forward. I would anticipate that there was this sort of hope for a lot of the volunteers in the district to potentially land a minimum wage job. Because that was the goal of this measure was to assure that every station could put two people on, every day, all days of the year at minimum wage,” he said.
Rohrabaugh predicts that many volunteer staff will leave to seek employment at either other departments or entirely new fields.
Chief proponent for the measure Dana Nichols said, “The citizen committee will review the results and discuss with a number of people to determine whether it will try again. No decision has been made yet. We would not anticipate another attempt unless we believe that something could be done to change the measure or better educate voters to give it a chance of passing.”
He described the response from the firefighting community as “disappointed,” but they still intend to do the best they can with available resources.
As to why he thinks the measure did not pass, Nichols said, “I think inflation was a big factor. We had no way to know 18 months ago when we began this process that prices would go up so quickly. I know that there are many voters in this county who are feeling the economic pain.”
Nichols also stated that some voters may have confused Measure A with a property tax rather than a sales tax.
“Myself and other members of the campaign have encountered many voters who had the mistaken idea that Measure A was a property tax. Many people of limited means own property here and, therefore, oppose property taxes. I believe at least some of them would have voted in favor if they had known it was a sales tax that everyone, including wealthy tourists, would pay,” said Nichols.
Copperopolis fire chief Scott Hertzog was contacted for this article but did not respond, and Calaveras Consolidated Fire Protection District Chief Rich Dickinson declined to comment.
