Isleton’s Measure D, a special 3/4-cent sales tax to fund fire services, heads to defeat

As of 2 a.m., Measure D — a special 3/4-cent sales tax in Isleton that would go towards funding its fire department — had garnered about 61 percent of the vote, a few percentage points short of its needed threshold.

The sales tax would replace an existing half-cent sales tax that is intended to fund equipment and training for the Isleton Fire Department, a mostly volunteer-operated group.

Under Measure D, the new sales tax would remain in effect for five years and is expected to generate $110,000 annually for the city of Isleton. Because it’s a special sales tax that would be used for a specific purpose, it needs two-thirds of the vote to pass.

The tiny Delta city of about 800 residents, has struggled over the years with fiscal mismanagement and outsized debts.

Isleton Fire Chief Scott Baroni said that with the existing sales tax Measure B — which was approved by voters in June 2016 — the department has been able to purchase new firefighter gear and send volunteers to training.

But for years, the city has failed to maintain basic accounting documents on how Measure B money is being spent. A mandated citizen oversight committee for Measure B was not formed until last summer, three years after the city started collecting the revenue.

If approved, Measure D would eliminate the citizen oversight committee.

The ballot language for Measure D also failed to include key information about the sales tax as required by state law. Isleton later sent out a notice to voters last month after being notified of the omissions.

The Isleton Fire Department, a 22-person department made up mostly of volunteers, responded to about three calls a week over the last two years, according to data from the Sacramento Regional Fire/EMS Communications Center.

“Now that major purchases have been made, those new turnouts are already three years old. Seven years from now we need to replace all those, so we’re looking down the road, at the future,” Baroni previously told The Sacramento Bee.

Specifically, the city is hoping to leverage some of new sales tax revenue secure bonds and grants for a new $700,000 ladder truck.

This story was originally published March 3, 2020 at 8:23 PM.