FP-5 Tax: Same Service, Higher Prices

07 May FP-5 Tax: Same Service, Higher Prices

Swindled by a tax you’ve never even heard of

An FP-5 Awareness Installment

 

The FP-5 Tax?

You may have heard of the FP-5 tax. More than likely you have not. The Fire Protection Tax, whose expansion was approved by the San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors in June of 2018, was initially designed as a tax to fund the San Bernardino County Fire Department’s provision of fire prevention, suppression, and protection services for the community of Helendale. So far so good? Who doesn’t want to help out the local fire department?

The reason you may not have heard about this tax is because you likely never got to vote on it. The constitution demands a ⅔ majority vote on a measure for it to be approved and you likely never got that chance because you never saw it. 

Sneaky Tax Tactics

This “sneaky tax”, originally intended to fund the SBCFD’s fire provisions for Helendale has expanded since 2018. The areas now include San Bernardino, Twentynine Palms, Needles, and Upland, as well as San Antonio Heights.  An assessment originally covering a relatively small township has now grown to incorporate 95% of San Bernardino County.

This fly-by-night tax levies a special tax of $157.26 per parcel on all unincorporated property owners in the county. This may not seem like an earth-shattering number, but if you’re living on fixed income or have a very small property tax to begin with, this out-of-the blue increase may be cause for some alarm. That many inhabitants and property owners within the county didn’t get a say in the matter only adds insult to injury. Advocated by the senior leadership within the county’s government, this plan was intended simply as a method to increase tax revenue. 

The Red Brennan Group takes issue with the FP-5 Tax in many ways. Where you should take issue with this is the way county city officials maneuvered themselves around California Constitution. This requires that all taxes must first be approved by those being taxed. If your local government is going to impose a tax on you, you should know about it.

FP-5 Tax – You Voted On It, Even If You Didn’t

In this case, however, the county and the Local Agency Formation Commission (LAFCO) decided  to run what is referred to as a “protest process”, where each county landowner was given mailed notice of a one-month ‘protest period’. During this period the county would ‘gladly’ accept letters protesting the creation of the new assessment district (initially only Helendale and Silverlake, then to the rest of the county, eventually 95% of it).

Here’s the dodgy part: anyone who did not submit a letter of protest was deemed to be in support of the annexation and assessment, and a vote ratifying this expansion was cast on their behalf. 

In this case, silence means consent. If you didn’t respond with a negative response to the protest process letters, an affirmative vote was CAST FOR YOU. ON YOUR BEHALF.

The Result of the FP-5 Tax

Having (unknowingly) ratified and approved the annexation, levy, and assessment, any of those people who, for various reasons, didn’t submit a protest letter, were now committed to paying a percentage of their property taxes as part of this ‘deal’ that they ‘agreed’ to. Effectively, city residents, property owners and business owners are footing the ‘lion’s share’ of the new provision on fire service. Now before you think “Well, as long as we’re supporting County Fire”, think again. In the cases of Upland and San Bernardino, the cities were free to use the money any way they wanted. In most cases, this meant paying the pensions of retired municipal employees. 

What we’re talking about here is the funding for a main key element of service inherent to a responsible government – namely fire services – being laid at the feet of unknowing, apathetic, or uninformed citizens who were ultimately unable to prevent their communities’ annexation into the County Fire Protection Zone 5 simply because the board of supervisors for their counties, along with LAFCO, decided to tackle the measure with an abundance of stealth and an immense lack of transparency. 

Bear in mind that this does nothing to change the degree of fire services rendered. This, in no way, increases the level of care or protection a given community would receive. All the FP-5 Tax does is leave citizens with a $150 parcel tax that they’ve never had to pay before. 

Same services, higher price? 

Angry yet? 

Well what happens when the citizens decide to push back? Enter San Antonio Heights.

Stay tuned for the next installment of our FP-5 Awareness series.