For months now, the non-profit Red Brennan Group has been financing a signature-gathering campaign to place a measure repealing the county’s FP-5 special fire tax on the November 2020 ballot. Today, a petition with what is estimated to be seven times the number of signatures needed, goes to the registrar of voters. Reporter Mike Lipsitz explains why there are so many extra signatures…
Landowners in the county’s newly expanded Fire Protection District 5, or FP-5, saw a $157 per parcel “fee” added to their most recent property tax bills. The fee was imposed following a process widely viewed as a violation of Prop 218, which requires voter approval of special taxes. Last August, the nonprofit Red Brennan Group gave legal notice of intention to put a ballot measure before voters seeking repeal of the FP-5 special tax. The citizen activist group went to the registrar of voters for guidance on how many signatures were needed to put the measure on the ballot. The answer was 10 percent of registered voters in the fire protection district, or at least 26,183 signatures.
A five-month signature-gathering effort ensued, netting more than 34,000 signatures. At the same time, the organization contacted the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, which determined the county had given bad information to the Red Brennan Group, and only about 7,800 signatures were needed. They pointed out that an initiative may be proposed by presenting a petition signed by five percent of the voters for governor at the last election. The applicable law is Proposition 218 of the California Constitution.
The county has acknowledged the error, but it came too late to prevent the Red Brennan Group’s expenditure of more than twice the funds and resources necessary to put the tax rescission measure on the November ballot.
