A ballot proposal to enact a county-wide sales tax to bolster the Cortez Fire Protection District budget continues to pass as of Nov. 9.
It’s Ballot Issue 6-A, and only people in their 169 square mile district voted on the tax that would have or will increase fire department taxes by $3,294,000 annually ($1,67,000 in 2025), according to the ballot.
It is passing with 54.54% of voters voting “yes,” and 45.55% “no.”
“We will want to thank everyone for their support for the Cortez Fire Protection District. The additional revenue will provide the necessary funding to ensure that service and response capabilities will meet the needs of our growing community,” Fire Chief Roy Wilkinson said.
The 0.54% tax works out to be less than a penny on the dollar for consumers, but will add an estimated $3.3 million to CFPD’s budget.
The tax will not go into effect until July 1, 2025, and CFPD will start seeing money from it Aug. 1, 2025.
Back in July when CFPD agreed to put the tax on the November ballot, it was $250,000 in debt.
It recently sold a fire station south of town to help make ends meet through the end of the year, and is running a little over 10 runs a day with four or five firefighters on shift.
As of Oct. 31, CFPD had made 3,281 runs. That’s more than it ran the whole year of 2021 and years leading up to that.
Things exempted from the tax include food, medication, machinery and machine tools, farm equipment, gas and electricity for residential use, diapers, period products and more, according to CFPD’s Facebook page.
