Welcome to the TSRVFD Website
Threats to Funding and Service
The Sea Ranch Volunteer Fire Department (TSRVFD) wants the community to be aware of future threats to maintaining the level of fire protection service in our area. If the trend of diminishing allocation of taxes to TSR continues, within a few years we will not be able to fund our fire services at the same level as we do today. TSRVFD has been looking at this problem for some time and believes that now is the time to take steps to prevent a funding crisis or reduction in service.
So what is the problem? In brief, the amount of tax dollars returned to the Sea Ranch area by Sonoma County is less than the amount needed to fund the VFD and the year-round CALFIRE staff. In past decades this was not true, and it was possible to cover all expenses and also to build up reserves to use for major capital expenses, such as purchasing replacement firefighting apparatus. This is no longer the case, and the "reserve" funds kept by the county to support fire services in the Sea Ranch area are now going down each year.
19.2% of the "proposition 13" property tax funds from The Sea Ranch area are initially allocated to fire protection. However, due to a long and complex history of state and county legislation, less than 40% of those funds are actually allocated back to pay expenses for the local year-round CALFIRE crew and TSRVFD. The community needs to find a way to return enough of our property tax dollars to our area to sustain our level of service.
More detailed information can be found at the links below.
How is the Fire Department Funded?
How is the property tax allocated?
What is the problem with the funding?
How did the current tax allocation get that way?
The Need for Local Control
What is ERAF?
What can be done to address the issues?
How Can You Help?
Presentation slides from December 6, 2014 TSR Forum on Fire Services (PDF, 4 MB)
