League of Women Voters of California Education Fund
	San Diego County, CA November 4, 2008 Election
	Proposition A Regional Fire Protection Ballot Measure County of San Diego 2/3 Approval Required Fail: 717183 / 63.58% Yes votes ...... 410828 / 36.42% No votes See Also: Index of all Propositions

Arguments For Proposition A

Arguments Against Proposition A

We've all witnessed, first hand, the devastating impact on our community of two major firestorm in the past five years. All told, these fires claimed 27 lives, destroyed more than 4,000 home and led to one of the largest mass evacuations in American history. Experts agree it is only a matter of time before another wildfire strikes our region again. Passage of PROPOSITION A will dramatically improve our ability to fight future wildfires and significantly bolster day-to-day emergency services in every corner of our region. Most importantly, passage of PROPOSITION A will provide necessary funding for the immediate acquisition of new fire trucks, new firefighting helicopters and aerial tankers - all to be used exclusively here in our local neighborhoods. PROPOSITION A will provide the funds required to upgrade our emergency communication system, which will allow firefighters, police officers, dispatchers and other emergency responder to communicate with each other much more effectively. PROPOSITION A will also strengthen local brush management and brush clearance programs reducing the very fuel that enables wildfires to spread. PROPOSITION A provides for the establishment of Regional Fire Protection Agency to ensure better coordinated responses, resulting in quicker response times, and greater efficiency. All of this can be accomplished with most property owners contributing only one dollar per week! PROPOSITION A has strong taxpayer safeguards. It requires that proceeds be shared between rural fire districts and urban fire departments, ensuring that fire services in the entire region are improved. It also guarantees that funds cannot be diverted for other purposes or taken for use by either the state or federal government. Please join community leaders, your neighbors and firefighters in ensuring we have the resource! and equipment we need before we face that next, inevitable wildfire. Vote Yes on PROPOSITION A ! JERRY SANDERS Mayor of San Diego MARK BAKER Fire Chief/President, San Diego County Fire District Association WILLIAM B. KOLENDER Sheriff AUGUST GHIO Fire Chief/President, San Diego County Fire Chiefs' Association GREG COX Chair, Board of Supervisors Chair, San Diego County Unified Disaster Council Rebuttal to Arguments For Here's what Proposition A proponents neglected to tell you: San Diego County adopted a 2007-2008 budget of about $4.7 billion, over 8% higher than the previous year. County revenues have soared in recent years, but our Supervisors have chosen not to fund these firefighting improvements from their swollen budgets. By supporting this tax, our Supervisors essentially are deciding that all other budget spending is more important than firefighting - that there isn't $50 million to be found in a $4.7 BILLION county budget. That's about ONE PERCENT of the budget. Amazing! Aside from sheriffs and jails, what other county spending category could possibly be as important as fighting brush fires? Judging from our Supervisors' decision, apparently just about EVERYTHING else is more important than firefighting. Our County Supervisors annually distribute $10 million from their taxpayer-funded discretionary accounts (informally known as their "slush funds"). They give only a pittance of this money to firefighting - most goes to narrow special interest groups. Perhaps if firefighters started funding trips overseas for the Supervisors, they'd have more luck getting these discretionary funds. Sure seemed to work for other groups! Tax hikers in just about every local government probably are hoping this parcel tax passes. If it does, it likely will encourage politicians to bring forward more and probably larger parcel taxes in the future. Hence this issue is far bigger than "only a dollar a week." This tax rises with a cost of living index. Bad idea! Enough! No new taxes. No on Prop A! http://www.NoSDParcelTax.com THE HONORABLE JOEL ANDERSON Assemblyman, 77th District LOUIS P. KARTSONIS, M.D. Physician/Ophthalmologist RUTH M. STERLING La Mesa City Councilwoman PAT FLANNERY Real Estate Broker RICHARD RIDER Chairman, San Diego Tax Fighter

In the teeth of this recession, with record energy prices, soaring unemployment and plummeting home values, the county presents its solution - RAISE TAXES! What are they smoking?! This tax is for fire protection, which should be a top priority for government. But we already pay plenty of taxes to provide firefighting. If we need more money for this critical service, we should SHIFT funds from other less important government functions - such as the current policy of providing most thirty year county workers with two pensions that together far exceed their highest salary. It's bad enough that politicians want to raise taxes. But this time they are after the poorest and weakest of our citizens. This parcel tax charges the same $52 to almost all property owners - residential and business. Hence it is EXTREMELY regressive, hurting the working class and retirees the most. A two million dollar homeowner will pay the same parcel tax as a $200,000 condo owner. Equally disturbing is that the county and local jurisdictions refuse to pursue more innovative, cost effective options to fight our infrequent but devastating brush fires. Options such as: Ask our thousands of firefighter-trained military to help fight the fires, especially in suburbia. Form an emergency reserve volunteer firefighter brigade. Train homeowners who want to stay and defend their homes - especially suburban homes - from the brush fire embers that cause most house fires. In this recession, California politicians have gone tax crazy. Our state and local ballots will be filled with taxes and bonds galore. It's time to say no to ALL the tax increases. And especially to this parcel tax. If this measure passes, count on more parcel tax propositions in future elections. We pay more than enough taxes now. Vote NO on A. RICHARD RIDER Chairman, San Diego Tax Fighter JOE SHEFFO Candidate, Encinitas City Council ALLEN P. HEMPHILL Newspaper Columnist GARY PIETILA Ranchita Homeowner MICHAEL BENOIT Chair, Libertarian Party of San Diego County Rebuttal to Arguments Against Thousands of homes in our communities were burned to the ground by raging wildfires in 2003 and 2007. When the next firestorm strikes, the San Diego region must be better prepared! Proposition A will provide funds for equipment our fire fighters desperately need to protect the people of San Diego County. Proposition A will allow our fire departments and local governments to acquire equipment critical for fighting fires, like helicopters, aerial tankers and fire trucks. Proposition A will fund much-needed upgrades to communication systems currently relied upon by emergency personnel during disasters. The short-sighted opponents of Proposition A would have you believe that we already have enough money to pay for the increased fire protection we need. They simplistically suggest that money be taken away from other important services to fund fire protection. But this could cripple police service, undermine road repairs, cut library hours and even shut down parks. San Diegans understand that robbing Peter to pay Paul by putting existing services at risk is just a bad idea, not a solution. Proposition A will fund aggressive brush clearing, vegetation management, flammable materials removal programs; and greater public education to prevent fires from starting and spreading. And most importantly, funds generated by Proposition A will stay right here in San Diego County. These funds cannot be used for anything other than expanding our region's fire fighting services and increasing fire protection. When the next devastating wildfire strikes, will San Diego County be ready? The decision is ours. Please vote YES on Proposition A. RON ROBERTS, County Supervisor Co-Chair, Regional Fire Protection Committee JAMES A. FLOROS Executive Director, Burn Institute WILLIAM B. KOLENDER Sheriff IRVING "JAKE" JACOBY, MD, FACP, FACEP Board Certified Emergency Medicine Physician Disaster Medical Response Specialist TRACY JARMAN, Fire Chief City of San Diego