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The fate of Measure Z, and the San Bernardino County fire tax it aims to repeal, may be determined by the courts, not the voters who weighed in on the matter this week.
As of 3:15 a.m. Wednesday, June 8, unofficial election night results showed voters approving repeal 59.28% to 40.72% with 39,242 votes counted. But as of that posting, the San Bernardino County Registrar of Voters still had 110,000 mail-in ballots to process. Updated election results were expected at 4 p.m. Wednesday.
To pass, the measure needs a simple majority. But the issue has been tied up in the courts for months.
The San Bernardino County Fire Protection District filed a lawsuit in February against the registrar and measure backers to keep it off the ballot.
In March, San Bernardino County Superior Court Judge David Cohn ordered the registrar to remove the measure from the ballot on the grounds that it violated state election code that makes it illegal to intentionally misrepresent information while gathering signatures to place an item on the ballot.
Residents had collected 8,868 signatures to put the initiative before voters.
Measure backers appealed the order, but by May the Fourth District Court of Appeals rejected that effort.
On May 31, Cohn issued his judgment and said the initiative “is invalid and shall not be enforced or given legal effect.”
On Monday, the day before the election, backers filed another appeal.
The tax, called the FP-5 property assessment, was approved by San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors in 2018. It expanded a fire protection zone to all unincorporated county areas and four cities without their own fire departments — San Bernardino, Upland, Twentynine Palms and Needles. The tax is currently about $162 per parcel.
Tom Murphy, spokesman for The Red Brennan Group, which backs the repeal, said while votes are still being counted, “it looks like voters approved the repeal, so from our perspective the fate of the measure is now, essentially, in the hands of the Court of Appeals.”
He noted that when a similar proposed repeal of the tax, Measure U, was before voters in 2020 it had initially looked to have passed, but as mail-in ballots were slowly counted, it turned out to have failed 52% to 48%.
An impartial analysis of the 2022 measure in the official voter information guide said without the tax, the fire protection district would lose $42.7 million per year, an 18% drop in its budget.
Fire officials have said the loss would reduce fire protection and emergency medical services, while forcing closure of 15 to 17 fire stations across the district.
The argument in favor of the measure said the special fire protection assessment was initially approved in violation of the state Constitution because it did not go to the voters and get two-thirds voter approval, as required for new taxes by Proposition 218.
The county approved it after not enough property owners sent in letters of opposition.
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