What it is: Proposition Full-Time Staffing is a 35-cent property tax increase.
Vote needed to pass: Simple majority.
What it’s about: The tax increase would provide funding to keep six firefighters on staff.
Hillsboro Fire Chief Brian Gaudet said the tax increase of 35 cents per $100 assessed valuation would provide the revenue the district needs to keep six full-time firefighters employed.
If the measure, called Proposition Full-Time Staffing, fails, the district will have to lay off those firefighters, he said.
The district’s current tax rate is 47.22 cents per $100 assessed valuation. If the increase is approved, it would raise the rate to 82.22 per $100 assessed valuation and would cost the owner of a home valued at $150,000 by the Jefferson County Assessor’s Office an additional $99.75 per year.
Gaudet said the six firefighting jobs were added three years ago after the district received a $1,011,000 grant from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) that covered the cost of hiring the firefighters and paying for their salary and benefits for three years. In order to keep the six firefighters, the district must find a way to cover those costs by the end of this year.
The district asked for a tax increase in 2020, 2021 and 2022 that would have covered the costs, but each time the measures failed.
“This is our last chance to be able to pay for all those positions,” Gaudet said. “Staff reductions would begin Feb. 1, 2024.”
He said the firefighters are needed to keep up with emergency calls, which have continued to rise over the years.
“We had a record-breaking year last year with 1,354 calls,” Gaudet said. “The old record was 1,295 the year before.”
If the district were to lose six of its 14 paid firefighters, there would be serious consequences, Gaudet said.
“With our staffing lowered, we would need to use volunteers to staff Station 2 at 5750 Hwy. B.
“Trying to handle a call volume of 1,300-plus calls a year with just two (paid) people on duty 24-hours a day is not safe. Right now, we’ve got four (paid) people on duty, two at Station 1 and two at Station 2.”
The district’s Station 1 is at 120 S. Fifth St. in Hillsboro. Station 2 is in the western part of the fire district.
A reduction in paid staff would negatively affect response time to calls in the district’s western section since paid firefighters would not be at the station ready to hop onto a truck when calls come in, Gaudet said.
“The volunteers would have to come from home to get to a truck,” he said.
If the tax increase is approved, it would allow the district to continue providing its current level of service, Gaudet said.
“The immediate benefit to the citizens is having our two engine houses open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year (with paid firefighters on duty),” he said. “We’ll maintain a pretty rapid response time out to the west side of the district.”
Gaudet said the district has not had a tax increase in more than two decades.
The district covers 44 square miles in the city of Hillsboro and the surrounding area.