The Hillsboro Fire Protection District won’t have to lay off any firefighters since voters approved Proposition Full-Time Staffing, a tax increase of 35 cents per $100 assessed valuation, on April 4.
The measure required a simple majority and received 898 votes in favor (68.71 percent) to 409 votes against (31.29 percent).
With the increase, the district’s current tax rate will rise from 47.22 cents per $100 assessed valuation to 82.22 cents per $100 assessed valuation and will cost the owner of a home valued at $150,000 by the Jefferson County Assessor’s Office an additional $99.75 a year.
Had the proposition failed, the district would have had to lay off six of its 14 paid firefighters by Feb. 1, 2024, after the expiration of a $1,011,000 grant the district received in 2020 to temporarily cover those firefighters’ pay and benefits, Fire Chief Brian Gaudet said.
The district was required to find another funding source to cover the ongoing costs for those six firefighters’ pay and benefits and tried three previous times to get voter approval for a tax increase before it passed last week.
He said he is thrilled voters approved the measure.
“All the jobs are safe,” he said. “There are no layoffs coming to the
Hillsboro Fire Protection District.
“We obviously want to thank all of our residents and citizens who came out and voted.”
Gaudet said he believes communication helped tilt public opinion in favor of the proposition this time around.
“We got out and talked to subdivision groups, political groups, the Chamber of Commerce and Rotary to educate them on the situation we’re in,” he said. “It was just everybody coming together to get the word out about the importance of this.”
If the tax measure had failed again, the district could not have kept its Station 2 at 5750 Hwy. B. open at all times because of a lack of firefighters to staff it, Gaudet said.
“(Its passage) means our Station 2 will be open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year,” he said.
The district’s Station 1 is at 120 Fifth St. in the city of Hillsboro.