Timberline Fire Protection District Six-Mill Levy Increase
Property tax increaseFire district mill levy increase
Adds 6 mills to Timberline Fire district property taxes, $1.2 million in the first full year, for firefighters, wildfire mitigation and general operations.
Timberline Fire Protection District
Kim's Recommendation
NO
Vote No on Timberline Fire Protection District Ballot Issue 7B
Ballot Issue 7B asks for six more mills with no end date, and the staffing plan the district has described is not in the question. The chief put close to 90% of the money toward hiring firefighters, and the board president spoke of round-the-clock crews at Station 3. The title names hiring as one use in an open list that reaches general operations and capital needs, and by the board's choice even the hiring clause leaves the station plan out.
The board president also counted a $700,000 Station 3 loan among the capital needs the new revenue would help pay. I expect a levy with no end date to be held to the purposes offered for it, and this title lets the new mills repay construction debt as readily as they pay firefighters. A permanent property tax increase written this loosely asks taxpayers to trust future boards with money the title does not confine to firefighters.
I recommend a no vote on Timberline Fire Protection District Ballot Issue 7B.
Kim Monson
Host, The Kim Monson Show · President, Colorado Union of Taxpayers · Colorado Voter's Guide 2026
Certified ballot question
SHALL TIMBERLINE FIRE PROTECTION DISTRICT TAXES BE INCREASED IN THE FIRST FULL FISCAL YEAR BY $1,200,000 AND BY SUCH AMOUNTS ANNUALLY THEREAFTER AS MAY BE RAISED BY AN ADDITIONAL PROPERTY TAX LEVY OF 6.0 MILLS, THE REVENUE THEREFROM TO SUPPORT THE DISTRICT'S RESPONSE CAPABILITIES, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO HIRING ADDITIONAL FIREFIGHTERS, MAINTAINING WILDFIRE MITIGATION SERVICES AND EMERGENCY RESERVES, AND SUPPORTING THE DISTRICT'S GENERAL OPERATIONS AND CAPITAL NEEDS?
A yes vote means
Approves the additional 6.0 mill property tax levy.
A no vote means
Rejects the increase.
Six Mills With No End Date01
Ballot Issue 7B goes to voters in the Timberline Fire Protection District, whose area includes unincorporated Gilpin County and a small part of Boulder County south of Nederland, the Weekly Register-Call reported. It adds a 6.0-mill property tax levy, raising district taxes by $1,200,000 in the first full fiscal year and by whatever the levy produces in later years. The question sets no end date. The board called the election in a resolution adopted August 10, 2026, and fixed the wording in a second resolution on September 1.
The district's 2026 adopted budget sets its levy at 9.359 mills: a base of 8.342 mills plus 1.017 mills this year under an annual adjustment district voters approved in 2018 to offset revenue lost to assessment-rate changes under the Gallagher Amendment. The Register-Call reported that the increase lifts the residential rate to 14.342 mills before that adjustment, which varies each year.
The question carries no revenue-retention clause. The district's 2025 audited financial statements report that district voters reduced certain TABOR limits in May 1998, and that the district may therefore retain all revenues under TABOR.
Added Annual Timberline Fire Tax
Annual property tax at 6 mills.
$10,000 in taxable assessed value
$10,000 at 6 mills = $60.00 per year.
Taxable assessed value is not a home's market value. For 2026 it is about 6% to 7% of the actual value the county assessor sets. A home with an actual value of $500,000 has an assessed value of about $30,600 for local government taxes and $35,250 for school district taxes.
Enter taxable assessed value, not market value. Other property taxes are excluded.
Added annual tax
Enter a nonnegative dollar amount with no more than two decimal places.
Timberline Fire Protection District ballot issue 7B: 6 mills.
The District's Staffing Plan02
Fire Chief Paul Ondr told the board that close to 90% of the added money would go toward hiring firefighters, The Mountain-Ear reported. Board President Richard Wenzel told the Register-Call in August that the district needs the money for full-time firefighters to staff Station 3 around the clock, for its fire mitigation program, and for general operating costs and capital needs, including a $700,000 loan the district obtained to help complete the Station 3 renovation.
The ballot title directs the revenue to the district's response capabilities, "including but not limited to" hiring additional firefighters, maintaining wildfire mitigation services and emergency reserves, and supporting general operations and capital needs. At an August 10 workshop, board members questioned whether the wording should lock the district into staffing an additional station, and they favored naming "hiring additional firefighters" to give future boards more flexibility in using the added personnel, The Mountain-Ear reported.
Station Construction and New Borrowing03
Management's discussion for the 2025 audit estimates the cost of the new apparatus bays and updates at Station 3 at nearly $2.5 million. It lists a federal grant, a state grant and a $700,000 lease-purchase as funding sources, with the federal grant expected in 2026. The audited statements show a fund balance deficit of $345,780 at the end of 2025, which they attribute to capital spending that year. In January 2026 the district borrowed $1,000,000 to fund the project, at 5.97%, with interest-only payments and the balance due January 12, 2028. Its 2026 budget ties that borrowing to delays in a $908,279 federal grant.
Timberline Fire Protection District resolution setting the ballot title for a property tax increase to be submitted at the November 3, 2026 special election.
