Arvada Fire Proposes a 1% Sales Tax

Issue 6C adds a 1% Arvada Fire Protection District sales tax to purchases in the district from January 1, 2027. The district's board referred it unanimously on August 12, 2026, in Resolution 2026-04, under section 32-1-1107 of the Colorado Revised Statutes. The resolution cites cost inflation and property tax cuts from recent law changes. The district runs 11 active stations across about 60 square miles in the City of Arvada, the northern part of Wheat Ridge, Fairmount and parts of unincorporated Jefferson County.

The question sets the increase at $23.1 million for the first fiscal year and at the tax's yield after that. The county's TABOR notice puts the district's estimated spending that year without the increase at $64,211,208.

The tax generally follows the state's taxable goods and services and exemptions, including groceries, prescription medicines, diapers, and gas and electricity for homes. The resolution also exempts construction materials when the buyer shows acceptable proof that local use tax has been paid or is due, and it exempts cigarettes. It also exempts equipment that telephone, cable, broadband and mobile providers use directly to supply those services. Personal property on which specific ownership tax is paid or payable is exempt when the buyer lives or has its principal place of business outside the district and the property is registered, or must be registered, outside the district. For the Jefferson County part of Arvada, the state's January 2026 DR 1002 table lists 2.9% state, 1% RTD, 0.1% Scientific and Cultural Facilities District, 0.5% county and 3.46% city, a total of 7.96%; with 6C's 1% the total would be 8.96%. The same rows give 8% in northern Wheat Ridge, where the city rate is 3.5%, and 4.5% in unincorporated Jefferson County. Wheat Ridge voters also decide Issue 2A, a one-point city sales and use tax increase from the same date.

The question names firefighter and paramedic staffing, emergency vehicles, equipment and facilities, recruiting and keeping personnel, and firefighter health and wellness programs. At the board's May 6 meeting, Chief Financial Officer Nicole Stewart described a projected need for budget reductions beginning in 2027 to stay within the board's reserve policy. On August 12 she told the board that projected expenditures begin to exceed projected revenue.

Property taxes provide most of the district's money, and 6C adds the sales tax "in addition to all other taxes levied by the district." The minutes of an April 28 special meeting record, from the polling vendor's presentation, that a sales tax was "the clearly stronger option," starting "well above a likely passing level," while a property tax tested "closer to the margin."

The resolution says the tax continues until repealed and that the board may amend the resolution and the tax by later resolution unless the law prohibits the change. Under the question, all the tax's revenue and any earnings on it become a voter-approved revenue change under TABOR with no end date, exempt from section 29-1-301 of the Colorado Revised Statutes "and any other law." The question requires all spending of the sales tax revenue to be reported in the district's annual independent audit, published on the district's website and reviewed by an external auditor and the audit and finance committee.