Rye Fire Protection District Ten-Year Mill Levy Increase

For ten tax years, from the 2026 tax year, collected in 2027, through the 2035 tax year, collected in 2036, Ballot Issue 7B raises the Rye Fire Protection District's property tax levy by 11.652 mills. The added authority then expires unless the district's registered electors approve it again. The question puts the increase at $1,098,568.97 in the first full fiscal year and allows whatever the levy generates in each later year. For those ten years the district keeps and spends that revenue and its investment earnings as a voter-approved revenue change, notwithstanding any revenue or spending limit in state law.

The state Division of Property Taxation lists the district's levy for the 2025 tax year at 15.536 mills on an assessed value of about $85.6 million, for revenue of about $1.33 million.

The question directs the money to general district purposes, including increasing and maintaining emergency response staffing; maintaining fire protection, emergency medical, ambulance, rescue and wildland fire services; buying, replacing and maintaining apparatus, ambulances, emergency equipment and firefighter protective equipment; repairing, maintaining and improving stations and facilities; capital improvements and planned equipment replacement; and financial reserves for operating and capital needs.

In a September 26 Facebook post, the district puts more firefighter and EMS staffing, with more reliable round-the-clock coverage, first among the uses, followed by recruiting and keeping first responders and replacing aging engines, ambulances and gear. The district says it serves about 9,000 residents across 250 square miles and three counties, with three to four people on duty each day, from Station 1 in Rye and Station 2 in Colorado City.

The board postponed its July 20 meeting because of the Aspen Acres Fire and the district's continuing emergency response. The rescheduled July 27 agenda listed a potential mill levy ballot issue alongside the wildfire's operational, financial and personnel impacts on the district. The August 17 agenda listed an intergovernmental agreement for the November election, the proposed ballot issue, and the fire's reimbursement and cost recovery, with burn scar, flooding and post-fire recovery concerns. The board then scheduled a virtual special meeting for September 4 to consider final ballot language.

The question prints as 7B, in identical words, on the Pueblo, Huerfano and Custer county ballots. The state's 2025 property tax data place the district in parts of Custer, Huerfano and Pueblo counties. Huerfano County voters also decide County Ballot Issue 1A, which adds 2 mills to the county's property tax rate for parks, recreation and cultural facilities and programs, and calls its revenue a permanent voter-approved revenue change. The county's certified ballot prints 1A and 7B as separate questions.