LARKSPUR, Colo. — The Larkspur Fire Protection District is considering putting a tax increase on the November ballot, which fire officials say will help maintain their current level of service and equipment.
Fire Chief Timothy McCawley said the department needs more funding to keep serving the area with the best personnel and equipment.
The district has been gathering public input on three potential options over the last few months.
The first option is to do nothing and not place a question on the November ballot.
"The problem with that is with the increase in inflation and increase in demand for service, we are actually struggling to be able to continue the level of service that we're providing today beyond next year," McCawley told Denver7's Tyler Melito.
The second option is a 5.97 mill levy tax increase. For a property valued at $500,000, monthly taxes would increase by about $17.91. However, this option limits the department's ability to spend immediately.
"That would give us the money we need for both operations, and then just start saving to accomplish capital goals in the future, which are all laid out in our strategic plan," McCawley said.
The third option is a 3.97 mill levy increase combined with a $4.5 million bond. This would increase monthly taxes for a $500,000 property by about $17.40.
"That would allow us to start accomplishing capital goals in January, and then it would also give us the operations money that we need in order to continue the high level of service that we use," McCawley added.
McCawley recognizes that increasing taxes can be a difficult proposition for residents.
"Nobody likes more taxes, and we completely understand that. We want to be supportive of our community," McCawley said. "Our goal in all of this is that we have the right staff with the right equipment responding to your emergency on your worst day to make things better."
Anthony Caterina has lived in Larkspur for almost 30 years.
"There's lots of need for community here, because we do have to fill in a lot for watching over our neighbors," Caterina said. "We have a lot of homes in this area, and we have very, very little influence by commercial sales in the area."
Caterina says the last few years have brought challenges for community members.
"Our property tax has gone up, we really couldn't do much about that. Our health care has gone up. We really couldn't do much about that," Caterina said.
Caterina said he did not know what to think at first about a tax increase.
"I was very open to trying to understand what those needs were, because I just assumed they were cared for," Caterina said.
He said he is looking at where his priorities lie for both him and his family.
"There's other things I can do to cut corners. I don't want to do it for the safety of my family or community," Caterina said.
Other residents in town said while they want the fire district to be the best it can be, they do not want to be the ones footing the bill with more taxes.
"While we understand that the taxes have continued to go up in a community like ours, without that commercial development, we do have to ask for a little bit more from our residential citizens, and we understand that that's a burden," Chief McCawley said.
You can learn more about the tax increase question, calculate what the increase would look like for you, and provide feedback here.
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