Westport Fire District to hold election on proposed tax increase

Saying it has exhausted all other options, the Westport Fire Protection District will hold a special election on a proposed tax increase.

On Tuesday, the Stanislaus County Board of Supervisors approved $20,000 to conduct the vote-by-mail election Aug. 30. The rural fire district expects to raise about $130,000 a year with the special tax on parcels.

Westport provides fire protection and emergency services in an area south of Modesto, bordered by Bystrum Road on the east; Whitmore Avenue and the Tuolumne River on the north; West Monte Vista Avenue on the south; and the San Joaquin River on the west.

Chief Chad Hackett said the district has not increased levies since a $20-per-home annual tax was established in 1982. Westport has 20 volunteer firefighters, only two living inside the district boundaries, and that has caused daytime response to suffer, Hackett said.

A four-month trial with scheduled daytime staffing with an engineer and firefighter has worked well, the district says. If the ballot measure is approved, the increased tax revenue would enable the district to support the 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. staffing seven days a week, except for major holidays.

The engineer is paid $135 for each 12-hour shift and the firefighter earns $120, with no benefits. The volunteers choose the days they can work every month, Hackett said.

Before going with the staffing plan in August, Westport was not responding to one in every seven calls. Most were medical calls in which an ambulance responded, the chief said.

More than a year ago, the district sent out 500 letters asking for new volunteers and only two people responded. One of them joined the force. Westport lost six volunteers when four went to work for career departments and others were hired by Cal Fire.

Hackett said the district with a single station on Carpenter Road has lived within its $123,000 annual budget. “No one likes the word ‘tax,’ ” the chief said. “This is our last option.”

Two-thirds voter approval will be required to increase the annual levies.

The proposed taxes are $80 per home, plus $2.50 an acre for residential parcels larger than a half acre; $80 for rental homes; $600 per parcel for mobile home parks with more than 20 units; $300 for smaller mobile home parks; $200 per parcel, plus $2.50 an acre for dairies, poultry farms and agricultural processing structures; and $100, plus $2.50 an acre for feedlots.

The district would assess $30 for vacant residential parcels and $2.50 an acre for nonresidential vacant parcels.

Westport will reimburse the county for the $20,000 cost of the election.

This story was originally published May 24, 2016 at 2:38 PM with the headline "Westport Fire District to hold election on proposed tax increase."