Council to Take Up Fire Parcel Tax Aug. 3 as Ballot Deadline Nears

The Pasadena City Council is dark today but meets next Monday, Aug. 3, and city staff have signaled that is when the council should decide whether to put a fire-focused parcel tax before voters on Nov. 3.

Los Angeles County requires every election document in hand by Aug. 7.

What is actually on the table

City finance staff have modeled three rates, each charged against a property’s developed square footage: 17 cents, 20 cents and 24 cents.

At 24 cents, the tax would raise roughly $30 million a year and would cover fire services and street resurfacing, according to the Department of Finance report submitted by Director of Finance Karin Schnaider. At 17 cents, it would raise about $20 million and fund the fire plan alone — fire services, station repairs and year-round brush clearance. No street work.

For a homeowner, the highest rate works out to about $240 per 1,000 square feet of developed space. A median 1,600-square-foot house would owe roughly $384 a year.

Staff figures put the burden at about 67 percent residential and 33 percent non-residential, reflecting a city with 77.4 million square feet of residential space and 38.9 million square feet of non-residential.

The two-thirds bar

Because the money would be legally dedicated to a specific purpose, the measure is a special tax under California law. Special taxes require two-thirds voter approval. A general tax needs only a simple majority — 50 percent plus one.

Pasadena has cleared the two-thirds voter threshold before. Voters approved a Library Special Parcel Tax in 2022, raising roughly $2.8 million a year on a 15-year sunset; it comes up for renewal before 2038. Voters approved a library general obligation bond in 2024, which also required two-thirds approval. Interim City Manager Matthew E. Hawkesworth pointed to that bond as the model for a successful fire measure this November.

A supplemental voter information pamphlet would need to be prepared for any related city measures if the council viotes to go forward.

What the council has and has not done

On July 13, the council voted unanimously to direct staff to draft the measure, on a motion by Councilmember Rick Cole seconded by Councilmember Steve Madison. The matter came before the council as Agenda Item 16. Four other revenue options were set aside for now.

Cole warned against rushing but argued the city cannot afford to delay fire investment. Madison pushed to include a new fire station in the plan.

No tax was adopted. The vote directed staff to draft a measure and bring it back.

Councilmember Jason Lyon said he did not want a headline reporting that the council had approved two tax measures for the ballot, “because that’s not what’s happening.”

Those distinctions matter on Aug. 3, the date staff have identified for the ballot decisions themselves.

Why the council is here

Pasadena’s General Fund has been balanced with one-time revenues and reserves for three recent consecutive budget cycles. City finance staff describe a widening structural deficit in which spending growth consistently outpaces revenue growth — language that traces to Hawkesworth’s May 4 budget transmittal letter and reappeared, nearly word for word, in the July 13 staff report.

The fiscal 2027 budget, adopted June 15, carries about $379.7 million in General Fund revenue against roughly $383.4 million in spending, according to Schnaider. The roughly $3.8 million gap was closed with $5 million in one-time funds.

Against that, the Fire Department’s 10-year capital plan runs to roughly $230 million. It covers seismically unsafe stations, a city-owned fire headquarters and a live-fire training center. Hawkesworth said a new station is not in the current five-year capital budget, though it is part of the 10-year plan.

Fire Chief Chad Augustin told the council that regional grant funding has fallen from $24 million to $11 million over five years, and that a training-facility partnership with Pasadena City College could be eight to 10 years away.

The push for fire investment is explicitly tied to the Eaton Fire, which ignited Jan. 7, 2025, near Altadena Drive and Midwick Drive and burned into Altadena and Pasadena before full containment Jan. 31, 2025. Council discussion also referenced two magnitude-4.3-range earthquakes that struck near the San Andreas fault the weekend before the July 13 meeting. Mayor Victor Gordo cited the quakes as evidence that leaving fire stations seismically unsafe was “unacceptable.”

What was set aside

Staff presented four other options on July 13, and the council set them aside for now.

A real property transfer tax could generate up to $26 million a year at an accumulated 1.5 percent rate, though staff flagged it as volatile and likely to draw organized opposition. A quarter-cent sales tax would raise about $11 million a year. A 10 percent parking occupancy tax would raise about $5 million. A modernized gross-receipts business tax was estimated at $10 million to $15 million.

Pasadena’s sales tax rate is 10.5 percent and is scheduled to rise to 11 percent in fall 2026 under Los Angeles County’s Measure ER, with or without council action.

The July 20 council session turned heavily on the parking occupancy tax as a possible companion or fallback measure. Lyon has opposed pairing two tax questions on a single ballot, citing what he called parcel tax fatigue in the wake of a Pasadena Unified School District tax measure. Hampton has pushed to advance the parking tax alongside the fire measure.

What residents are telling the council

Correspondence submitted to the council has mixed support for firefighters with skepticism about additional taxation and about oversight of the money.

Resident Erin Kelly wrote that she despises the idea of another tax added to what she called an already outrageous property tax bill, but is willing to help pay for vital services. She said she remains suspicious of government spending and how it is actually disbursed, and asked how residents could be assured the money would go only to the fire improvements described.

Resident John Fauvre, who praised the heroism of firefighters and the value of their fire-risk programs, wrote that the Altadena fire showed containment came only when the wind stopped. He questioned whether the contemplated funds would do more than strengthen and repair an old system at high cost, and asked whether a new system built around newer insights and tools could do better. He also asked what his tax increase would be, and whether he would be safer.

On Aug. 3, the council is scheduled to meet at 6 p.m. in the Council Chamber, Room S249, at City Hall, 100 N. Garfield Ave.