Proposition A: Regional Fire Protection

There have been a large number of major fires in San Diego County in the last 15 years: the Harmony Grove Fire 1996, the La Jolla Reservation Fire 1999, the Pechanga Fire 2000, the Viejas Fire 2001, the Gavilan Fire 2002, the Pines Fire 2002, the Coyote Canyon Fire 2003, the Paradise Fire 2003, the Cedar Fire 2003, the Mataguay Fire 2004, the Witch Creek Fire 2007, the Rice Fire 2007, the Harris Fire 2007, and the Poomacha Fire 2007. All of them cost over a million dollars to fight and did over ten million dollars damage. Many took lives.

Fire protection issues make for lively discussions at both the state and local level, but little department funding has been added. A mandatory weed abatement program has been put into effect charged to rural land owners. Studies have shown this to be the most effective method of reducing the dangers of wildfires; however, weed abatement in San Pasqual would have meant little to the homeowners in Scripps Ranch and Rancho Bernardo or in the Escondido neighborhoods of Sonata and Lomas Serenas in 2007. They needed fire fighters, fire trucks, and airtankers.

Jerry Sanders and Ron Roberts have developed Proposition A for the November ballot. If approved by two-thirds of the county's voters, the parcel tax is expected to generate about $50 million a year to improve the funding of the Regional Fire Protection Agency. As of today opposition to the proposition has not united, but opponents are comprised of those who don't want to pay additional taxes and those who feel that the money raised will not be enough to do the job.