Clements Rural Fire Protection District Parcel Tax, Measure J (August 2015)

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A parcel tax measure was on the ballot for Clements Rural Fire Protection District voters in San Joaquin County, California, on August 25, 2015. It was defeated.

If approved, Measure J would have authorized the district to impose a special parcel tax—a kind of property tax based on units of property rather than assessed value—with no automatic sunset date. According to district officials, the tax was designed to raise about $30,000 in revenue annually for the district. The tax measure would have authorized taxes to be imposed according to a maximum represented by the rates listed below. The district stated that it would not follow the rates authorized by the measure and would not impose taxes on pasture, farm, crop or ranch land. It also stated that it intended only to impose a tax of 1.5 cents per square foot for many buildings and structures, rather than the full three cents the district claimed would be authorized by the measure.

• $10 per year for:
  • unstable and unlivable vacant lots
• $25 per year for:
  • vacant residential lots with utilities
  • rural vacant home sites
  • undeveloped residential lots
  • private roads
  • parking lots
  • cemeteries
  • waste lands
• $50 per year for:
  • parcels of miscellaneous city property
  • parcels of publicly owned taxable land
• .05 cents per square foot for:
  • stores
  • fruit stands
  • office buildings, restaurants, bars, warehouses, wineries and other industrial or commercial spaces
• .03 cents per square foot for:
  • churches, synagogues and temples
  • auditoriums and stadiums
  • graze lands
  • farms, ranches, pastures, crops, vineyards and others

Although the text of the measure set the maximum rate at 0.03 and 0.05 cents per square foot for many areas, district officials insisted that the measure really meant three and five cents per square foot, rather three hundredths and five hundredths of a cent per square foot.

Measure J was designed to replace the district's then current parcel tax, which was approved in 1983 with the following annual rates:

• $48 plus $0.12 per acre for residential parcels
• $60 plus $0.12 per acre for commercial parcels
• $75 plus $0.12 per acre for parcels with two residences
• $10 plus $0.12 per acre for agricultural parcels without a residence and vacant residential parcels

A two-thirds (66.67%) vote was required for the approval of this measure.

Election results

Clements Rural Fire District, Measure J
Result		Votes	Percentage
d No		259	54.87%
Yes		213	45.13%

Election results from San Joaquin County Elections Office

Text of measure

Ballot question

The following question appeared on the ballot:

“

SHALL THE PROPOSED ORDINANCE 15-1 ESTABLISHING A SPECIAL TAX FOR FIRE PREVENTION AND SUPPRESSION BY CLEMENTS RURAL FIRE PROTECTION DISTRICT BE ADOPTED?

”

Full text

The full text of the tax measure, called Ordinance 15-1, is available here.

Confusion over tax rates

This measure caused a lot of confusion and conflicting positions on what tax rates would actually be authorized and imposed by the approval of Measure J. Although the text of the measure says, ".03 cents per square foot," the district interpreted that as three cents per square foot, instead of three hundredths of a cent per square foot.

Position of critics

Opponents of Measure J argued that, whether deliberate or not, the measure's text allows a tax of up to 0.03 cents per square foot, interpreted as $0.03 per square foot, for much of the land in the district. Critics say this levy could result in a very high payment for anyone who owns more than an acre or two of land. Bill Renfro, who owns Plants and Produce Nursery, referred to the measure text as a mistake and said the full levy would cost him $53,000 a year. Renfro said, “I don’t mind paying some money, because that’s a good fire department. But what I do mind is paying $50,000 more.”

Robert Indelicato, who owns a vineyard in the district, said, "When I read it, … they could charge us up to 3 cents a square foot on our vineyard and on a pasture and on our orchards or just anything. My little piece here is only 90 acres, but that would be $118,000 per year.”

According to Jason Morrish, a deputy county counsel for San Joaquin County, the measure would allow the district to impose a tax of up to 3 cents per square foot for land as well as buildings. Morrish said, “If you’ve got a horse ranch out there, this ordinance is going to allow a tax of up to 3 cents per square foot per year."

The district's position

Dave Ingrum, the district's fire chief, said these concerns were unfounded and the result of the way the measure's language was crafted. He stated that only buildings would be taxed and that, moreover, the district would not impose the full tax allowed by the measure, but was considering an initial rate of 1.5 cents per square foot. Ingrum stated, “There’s no tax to the land. If we charged 3 cents a square foot that would be totally ridiculous. This has been very frustrating. We spent a lot of time trying to do this right and it’s sort of fallen apart. We know we have a problem here, a misunderstanding, I guess, in the way it’s written up.”

District officials also stated that they hoped Measure J would increase the district's revenue by about $30,000 per year, which was about the amount by which expenses had surpassed revenues in the past several years. Ingrum also stated that the district needed to buy a new $450,000 fire engine.

Recent news

The link below is to the most recent stories in a Google news search for the terms Clements Fire District parcel tax Measure. These results are automatically generated from Google. Ballotpedia does not curate or endorse these articles.

Clements Rural Fire Protection District Parcel Tax, Measure J (August 2015) - Google News

See also

• Parcel tax
• Parcel tax elections in California
• California parcel tax on the ballot
• San Joaquin County, California ballot measures
• August 25, 2015 ballot measures in California

External links

Suggest a link

• San Joaquin County Elections Office website