Allenspark Fire District Property Tax Increase

The Allenspark Fire Protection District covers about 160 square miles of rural Boulder and Larimer counties. The district's website says 28 volunteers staff it and that property taxes and donations fund all of its operations. Ballot Issue 7C appears on both counties' ballots, and the district's voters decide it.

The question funds fire protection and emergency response, "including but not limited to" three groups of work. The first rebuilds depleted reserves, catches up on deferred maintenance of buildings and grounds, and updates and replaces firefighting and medical equipment. The second expands staffing for fire mitigation, community outreach and education. The third adds dry hydrants and installs water storage tanks across the district.

A yes vote adds 5.3 mills to the district's property tax rate. The state lists the district's 2025 general levy at 7.507 mills and its total levy, including abatements, at 7.605 mills. The Friends of the AFPD, who campaign for the measure, calculate a proposed general levy of 12.807 mills. The ballot adds 5.3 mills but does not fix the district's total future levy. The question limits the increase to $331,000 in 2027, the first fiscal year, and to whatever the added mills raise each year after. It sets no expiration. All revenue and earnings from the tax become a permanent voter-approved revenue change under TABOR and an exception to the limits of Title 29 of the Colorado Revised Statutes and any other law.

The district's TABOR notice shows spending of $493,038 in 2022 and an estimated $882,406 in 2026, an estimated increase of 79%. It estimates 2027 spending at $987,876 without the tax. As an example, at 5.3 added mills, $10,000 of taxable assessed value adds $53 a year in district tax. Taxable assessed value is the value the assessor uses to calculate the bill, rather than the home's full market value. The notice prints one comment for the measure and none against.

The Friends write that voters last raised the rate in 2003, to start a truck replacement fund. They estimate that the increase adds about 5% to a property's total tax bill and gives the district about 70% more funding. The Friends also write that property owners in the district who live elsewhere may vote if registered to vote in Colorado.

In Estes Park News, the Friends describe the district's firefighters and first responders as all-volunteer, averaging 300 to 400 hours each a year. They write that the increase would let the district fund a full-time fire chief and paid part-time positions, and full-time staffing at Station 1 on days of critical fire danger, with the goal of shorter wildfire response times. The comment in the TABOR notice argues that crews already at the station on Red Flag and other high-risk days can leave at once instead of waiting 10 to 15 minutes for volunteers to arrive. The board's preliminary August 19 minutes report that the district staffed the station on the one Red Flag day since its previous meeting.