Olivehurst residents overwhelmingly reject increased fire assessment

Voters in Olivehurst on Friday decisively defeated a mail-ballot measure to raise the annual assessment for fire service, with 72 percent voting against the proposal.

Another 24 percent voted in favor, with officials unable to determine a vote on 4 percent of the ballots, according to the Olivehurst Public Utility District.

The result means the district's Board of Directors will have to decide in the next month where to allot a shrunken base of revenues, and whether to continue assessing for fire protection at a previous, lower amount.

"My take is, I'm disappointed," said OPUD Director James Carpenter, one of two directors who lives in the affected area. "Evidently, we did not make a good enough case."

Voting yes would have meant the district could have assessed up to $151 annually for residential property owners for 24-hour fire service. The original assessment, approved in 2003, didn't keep pace with inflation and wasn't enough to cover costs, according to district officials.

Ballots were weighted by how much additional benefit a property owner would receive from the higher assessment. Those in historic Olivehurst would have seen a bigger increase than those living in newer subdivisions on the town's southwest side, so their votes weighed more heavily.

Under that formula, the "no" votes equaled $157,602.70 worth of benefit, while the "yes" votes equaled $52,393.71 worth of benefit. About 12,000 people live in the area covered by the Oliv hurst Fire Department.

OPUD General Manager Tim Shaw said Olivehurst residents should expect some fallout.

"For the board, and this is something being confronted by government agencies everywhere, it's what can be funded with a limited amount of funding," he said.

He and Carpenter said it was hard to speculate why voters rejected the higher assessment, though the tough economy probably played a part, both men said.

"In part, I think government has grown so large that people don't see the connection between the taxes they pay and the services they receive," Carpenter said. "But here, the connection was direct."

Shaw said when the assessment was enacted, it was the only nontax payment of its kind for Olivehurst residents.

Since then, he said, they have seen assessments for school bonds, community college improvements and levee maintenance. Some may be paying more in assessments than property tax, he said.

But for now, the Fire Department can't exist as it is with the level of funding it has, Carpenter said.

The OPUD board will discuss its next steps at its next meeting on July 21.

CONTACT reporter Ben van der Meer at 749-4786.