Napa Will Ask Voters to Approve Sales Tax to Damp Down Wildfires

Napa Valley, Calif., voters will consider a quarter-cent sales tax increase as part of an initiative to improve fire services. It was unanimously approved Tuesday by the Board of Supervisors.

If the June ballot succeeds, the Napa County Wildfire Prevention and Suppression Measure would raise $10 million a year for a decade for enhanced fire services and programs as catastrophic, climate-change-fueled wildfires continue to scorch the county and state.

Thirteen of the 20 largest wildfires in California occurred between 2017 and 2021, fueled by thousands of dried-out trees and shrubs, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, known as CalFire.

In 2020 alone, 28 civilians and three firefighters died, 9,248 structures were destroyed, and 4.2 million acres were consumed in fires across the state, according to a CalFire report. That includes the LNU fire in August 2020, which consumed 363,200 acres in Napa, Solano, Sonoma, Yolo, Lake, and Colusa counties.

“There continues to be a growing wildfire risk in Napa County that does not respect jurisdictional boundaries,” the initiative said.

SIGN UP for The Exchange, our free weekly tax newsletter

Money from Measure L, as it will appear on the ballot, would be used county-wide to buy equipment, increase staffing and training, and implement programs to reduce fire exposure.

Even with the destructive fires in the past six years, voters have been pretty tepid about raising taxes for fire services. Voters in 2020 rejected numerous tax and bond proposals after a series of disastrous fires. Raising taxes in California takes a two-thirds vote—a heavy lift.

“To remove the abundance of fuels that have been ignored for decades, we need to have durable funding that we can count on as an organization, as a community,” Christopher Thompson, president of the Napa Communities Firewise Foundation, told the board. Thompson is a volunteer firefighter in the Deer Park area whose house was burned in the October 2020 Glass fire.

If voters approve Measure L, Napa County would receive 75% of the annual revenue during the first five years, with the city of Napa receiving 14.28%, American Canyon, 4.72%, and Calistoga, St. Helena, and Yountvile 2% each.