Residents to vote on sales tax increase for wildfire prevention measures
Photo: A wildland file burns near Vine Street in Vacaville on October 17, 2020. (File photo by Matthew Keys for Solano NewsNet)
A measure on the November ballot will allow Solano County voters to decide whether to increase the county’s sales tax by one-eighth of a percent in order to find wildfire prevention and protection initiatives.
On Tuesday, the Solano County Board of Supervisors voted 4-1 in support of placing the matter on the November ballot, with the initiative spearheaded by Supervisor John Vasquez.
“Hope is not a strategy,” Vasquez said in support of the initiative, adding that he felt the “communities expect a little more protection” after several destructive and deadly wildfires have swept through rural parts of the county over the last few years.
Erin Hannigan, the supervisor who represents Vallejo, was the lone dissenter, saying residents in her district would be forced to pay the tax while seeing little benefit from it. Instead, Hannigan said she hoped more money would be allocated toward open spaces like parks.
Several wildfires have, in fact, swept through Hannigan’s district over the last few years, including a fire that damaged six structures and forced the evacuation of several neighborhoods in June 2021. Last month, a large fire burning on Mare Island caused traffic disruptions on nearby Highway 37.
Supervisors have also heard from fire officials in the past about the need to upgrade radios and other equipment so that better communication can be established between mutual aid agencies during large-scale emergency situations. In Vallejo, firefighters operate on a different digital system compared to their counterparts in other parts of Solano County (including the county’s rural fire protection districts, which still operates on an analog system; in April, the Board of Supervisors approved spending more than $1 million for radio upgrades).
“We are not thinking big enough,” Hannigan said on Tuesday of her opposition to the sales tax increase.
Still, the measure has support of rural fire protection officials and local fire departments, and it will be up to voters to approve or reject it in November. If approved, officials say it could generate as much as $9 million every year. On the ballot, voters will have the opportunity to advise on how that money would be best spent, though that part of the measure would be non-binding.
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