When the presidential primary election rolls around in March 2024, voters in the sprawling 19,000-square-mile Fire Protection District 5 will once again have an opportunity to reject the unpopular FP-5 Fire Tax, currently set at $172 per parcel.
Voters chose to repeal the controversial FP-5 Fire Tax on a ballot measure in 2022, but the county successfully overturned the will of the public in the courts. The tax in question generates $46.5 million for San Bernardino County Fire; 19 percent of the operating budget.
By most accounts it is not county fire that is the problem, but that the special tax was instituted without voter consent as required by the state constitution.
Now that a new voter initiative calling for repeal of the fire tax has passed all the hurdles on the path to becoming a ballot measure, county supervisors yesterday had the choice to ratify the repeal or to again send it to the electorate. They chose to send it back to the same public that already voted for its repeal. So when county voters head to the polls on March 5 to choose a presidential candidate they will also have another opportunity to weigh in on the FP-5 special tax.
