ARVADA, Colo. — According to the 2026 Colorado Fire Service Needs Assessment, released in August by the Colorado Division of Fire Prevention and Control (DFPC), two-thirds of Colorado fire departments can't fund their full operations, and nearly 80% can't afford the equipment and staffing they say they need.
Funding gaps like these are why local fire departments turned to voters this past election day, putting measures to help with funding on ballots.
In Arvada, voters had the opportunity to decide on ballot question 6C, which proposed a 1% sales tax increase in the Arvada Fire Protection District to support several areas including, maintain firefighter and paramedic staffing levels, emergency vehicles and equipment, modernize facilities.
In a statement posted to social media, Arvada Fire Chief Kirk Lock acknowledging that ballot question 6C was “unlikely to pass”.
He added, “However, the financial pressures that led us to Issue 6C have not gone away. These challenges, brought on by the rapidly rising costs of providing emergency services and recent legislation on assessment rates, coupled with the outcome of this election will jeopardize our ability to provide our community with the highest level of emergency and risk reduction services.”
As of Nov. 5, results for the measure on the Secretary of State’s office show 38,222 (50.77%) against the measure and 37,064 (49.23%) for the measure.
Lock’s full statement can be found below:
“We’d like to thank everyone who participated in the democratic process and cast a vote in this election. Although results are not yet official, Issue 6C appears unlikely to pass. While we are disappointed in the outcome, our members remain steadfast in our mission of saving lives, protecting property, and answering every call to service with compassion and dedication.
However, the financial pressures that led us to Issue 6C have not gone away. These challenges, brought on by the rapidly rising costs of providing emergency services and recent legislation on assessment rates, coupled with the outcome of this election will jeopardize our ability to provide our community with the highest level of emergency and risk reduction services.
Now, our Chief staff, Board of Directors, and members will navigate a challenging road ahead. To every extent possible, we’re committed to maintaining essential services in a fiscally responsible manner. While facing budget cuts and a reduction in spending, this will require very difficult decisions.”
Deputy Chief of Operations of Arvada Fire Matthew Oiser says the organization is "disappointed but not discouraged", and that this poses a new challenge.
“We're good at contingency planning. That's what we do here in emergency services, and so we're working through our contingencies,” Oiser said.
He says one of the reasons Arvada Fire put 6C on ballots was that the costs of delivery for emergency services have increased "tremendously" over the last several years.
"Additionally, our ability to retain and collect property tax — our growth in property tax has been capped, you know, by state law, and so those two things have really created, you know, some challenges,” he added.
“We're going to look, take an introspective look at how we're doing our business here, and make sure that we're doing everything we can to stretch our resources to keep providing the services we provide long into the future,” said Oiser.
This isn’t the first time Arvada Fire put a ballot measure like this in front of voters.
“We did this in 2009. We had a ballot initiative for raising property taxes, and that was supposed to be a 10-year runway,” said Oiser.
He added that voters passed that measure, and Arvada Fire was able to stretch that for a couple of extra years and thought ballot question 6C would be the last one they would need for a long time.
“We had our financial experts analyze our budget, look at forecasting, and we identified that $23.1 million dollars would give us a runway of roughly at least eight to 10 years out to not have to go back for additional source of funding,” said Oiser.
In October, Arvada City Council passed a motion against ballot question 6C.
City council’s liaison with the Arvada Fire Department, Shawna Ambrose, brought forth the opposition with concerns of the question raising sales tax.
Ambrose said the city would support a property tax but not a sales tax.
“The motion to oppose 6C is not anything against the fire department or saying anything about their need for their equipment. The city has a great working relationship with the fire department,” Ambrose said in the Oct. 6 meeting.
Ambrose added that sales tax is what the city uses to be able to provide resources to residents.
“We are such a sprawled-out city amongst all cities and maintaining those roads is really expensive, and we use sales tax to maintain those roads that the fire trucks drive on,” she said.
In a statement to Denver7, city council said, "The extremely close vote also reflects a community that was closely divided over how best to support essential fire and emergency services while balancing other community needs and the overall tax burden."
The full statement on behalf of city council can be found below:
"Arvada City Council extends our sincere appreciation to the dedicated professionals of the Arvada Fire District who serve our community every day. We recognize that the outcome of Measure 6C was not what our partners at Arvada Fire had hoped for. The extremely close vote also reflects a community that was closely divided over how best to support essential fire and emergency services while balancing other community needs and the overall tax burden.
With the election concluded, we look forward to continuing our strong partnership with Arvada Fire and working together on the challenges ahead. Our goal is to work collaboratively toward solutions that preserve the high-quality services residents and businesses rely on while also considering affordability for residents, the competitiveness of our business community and the community’s long-term fiscal capacity. We are confident we will find solutions to these challenges together."
“Opposition is a part of every political process. We understand that. We knew that going in,” said Oiser when Denver7 asked about the city council’s motion against the measure.
Denver7 asked Oiser if more ballot initiatives will be proposed. Oiser said, "It’s too early to tell".
“Right now, it's about listening to the community, respecting the vote and the decision that was made,” he said.
Nearby areas like Adams County and West Metro had similar measures on ballots; those are expected to pass. Adams County asked voters to approve a 1% sales tax increase; West Metro asked voters to approve a 0.75% sales tax increase.
Denver7 shared the story in Evergreen, where Fire Rescue asked voters to approve a 0.89% sales tax increase; this is expected to pass as well.
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