Pflugerville firefighters reject proposed petition to redirect sales tax to city

Ahead of the Pflugerville city council meeting on Tuesday night, Pflugerville firefighters gathered to raise concerns about a petition that was rejected last month.

The petition, drafted by Pflugerville residents for responsible taxation, aims to transfer half a cent of the sales tax currently funded by Travis County ESD #2 to the city of Pflugerville to fund its own emergency services.

“Travis County Ambulance Service #2 has voluntarily stopped providing ambulance services to the city, even though they have the money,” said Melody Ryan, a spokesperson for the campaign. “We want our local elected officials to be accountable for our taxes and services, and they are accountable to the voters.”

Ryan said that if the sales tax was transferred, the city could return it to Travis County ESD No. 2 or use it to build the city’s own emergency services.

“ESD #2’s 2023 budget includes an $11 million increase in revenue and they have over $24 million in excess taxes collected over time so they have enough money to continue with current operations and not make any personnel changes,” – the message says. Ryan.

She also said that Travis County ESD #2 has over 100 budget jobs.

Travis County ESD #2 terminated ambulance service to the City of Pflugerville in January 2022.

Starting in 2011, according to ESD #2 Chief Nick Perkins, response times from Pflugerville’s current supplier, Austin-Travis County Ambulance Services, have been on the rise. An additional sales tax was put in place so that Travis County ESD #2 could step in and help by training firefighters to become paramedics on a firetruck.

“Another necessary component was additional funding to provide ambulance services,” Chief Perkins said. “We spoke with the City and Travis County and they were initially willing to provide the necessary funding, but things changed and those decisions were redacted and we never received that funding to complete what we needed to provide ambulance services. “.

Josh Stubblefield, president of Pflugerville’s local association of professional firefighters 4137, also called it a “false story” that ESD #2 voluntarily “stopped” service.

In 2021, the City hired a third party to conduct a study that found “Travis County’s ESD #2 financial crisis is spontaneous and the need for $2.79 million from the City of Pflugerville to subsidize services is unfounded.”

Chief Perkins argued that if the recent petition were approved and approved by the voters, it would result in the loss of approximately a third of the county’s annual budget. He also said they would have to lay off up to 100 firefighters and staff and potentially increase ambulance response time from 8 to more than 20 minutes.

“This is not a scare tactic,” said Chief Perkins. “I’m trying to inform the public about what this means.”

Chief Perkins said ESD No. 2 firefighters responded to more than 4,000 emergency calls in the city of Pflugerville last year alone.

“The petitioners don’t have a plan, the city council doesn’t have a plan to replenish this service in any way,” Stubblefield said. “So when we can’t provide that service, it just isn’t there.”

The “Vote for EMS” petition was filed on December 16 and collected over 7,000 signatures. According to the city of Pflugerville, city council members have thirty days after verification of signatures to decide whether to call an election.

Content Source

Dallas Press News – Latest News:
Dallas Local News || Fort Worth Local News | Texas State News || Crime and Safety News || National news || Business News || Health News

texasstandard.news contributed to this report.

Related Articles

Back to top button