Government
BY CLAIRE SHOOP
Voters reject fire, EMS funding prop
Why it matters
As the Georgetown area has continued to grow, Sullivan said this has affected emergency response times, necessitating additional fire stations, personnel and resources. The response time to many areas in George- town’s extraterritorial jurisdiction exceed the department’s goal of nine minutes. Sullivan said this is an important target for intervening in medical emergencies involving brain damage and for stopping fires, which grow exponentially. “If the voters there are happy with the response times being what they are, then … we’ll just have to re-identify how we have our deployment plans and build-out plans,” Sullivan said. “It all has to be done within the framework of what voters and the taxpayers are willing to pay, and I fully respect that.”
operational resources. If it had been approved, Sullivan said the sales tax dollars would have helped fund five new fire stations over the course of the next 10 years, reducing the department’s response times. The measure, which failed with 53.13% of voters opposed, would have raised the sales tax rate on purchases made in person and online in the ESD service area from 6.25%— which is allocated to the state—to 8.25%. Now, the ESD will continue to be funded solely by its property tax rate of $0.094073 per $100 valuation for fiscal year 2023-24.
Georgetown Fire Chief John Sullivan said he was surprised to see there wasn’t sufficient support for Williamson County Emergency Services District No. 8’s proposition that would have increased sales and use tax in the entity’s territory by 2% and allocated it toward ESD operations. ESD No. 8 provides fire and EMS services to more than 28,000 people living outside Georgetown city limits. The Georgetown Fire Department and ESD No. 8 have an interlocal agreement and a cost-sharing agreement that allow them to share fire stations and other
ESD No. 8 overview
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Legend
Georgetown city limits ESD No. 8 service area Response time exceeds nine minutes Current fire stations Proposed fire stations
What’s next
In the coming months, Sullivan said department leaders and the ESD board will have to evaluate the ability to open up new fire stations and the services they provide. He said the department and ESD are in the early stages of a Fire Department Master Plan update and will be able to incorporate the results of the election into that plan. The 10-year plan will be available to the public around early spring, he said.
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GEORGETOWN
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NOTE: THE ESD WAS STILL SOLIDIFYING PLANS FOR A FIFTH PROPOSED STATION IN THE NORTHWEST QUADRANT OF THE GEORGETOWN ETJ.
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SOURCE: WILLIAMSON COUNTY EMERGENCY SERVICES DISTRICT NO. 8/COMMUNITY IMPACT
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