Written By The People.
A 0.75% special sales tax dedicated by law to Tuolumne County fire services. Drafted by residents, not by Supervisors. Locked to one purpose. The Board doesn’t get to spend it on anything else.
WHAT'S ON THE BALLOT.
A 0.75% special sales tax in the unincorporated areas of Tuolumne County — dedicated by law to county fire services, with independent annual audit. Smaller than Measure Z. Focused on one priority. Designed so the Board cannot redirect a single dollar of it.
0.75% on the dollar.
Three-quarters of one cent on every dollar of taxable purchases in unincorporated Tuolumne County. About 75¢ on a $100 purchase. Sized to what fire actually needs — closing the $1.8M shortfall, restoring Station 56, and stabilizing 3/0 staffing under the CalFire contract. Smaller than Measure Z’s 1%.
Special, not general.
Under California law, a “special tax” is legally restricted to the specific purpose stated on the ballot. These funds cannot be deposited into the County’s general fund. They cannot be redirected by board majority. They cannot be reallocated to other priorities. The Board still administers the CalFire contract — but they cannot spend this money on anything except fire services.
Citizens, not the Board.
This measure was drafted by Tuolumne County residents and qualified for the ballot by voter petition signatures — not by a Board of Supervisors vote. That changes who controls the ballot language, who controls the spending restrictions, and the voter threshold required to pass it. The Board doesn’t get to redraft it. The Board doesn’t get to water it down.
The petition is the first vote.
A measure isn't a measure until it's on the ballot.
Voters didn’t reject the need for fire funding. They rejected how the Board asked. Twice. This initiative removes the Board from the equation — drafted by residents, qualified by petition, restricted by law to a single purpose. No general fund. No advisory promise. No trust required.
A trust problem.
Engineered slowly, in plain view.
Fire becomes the County's top legislative priority.
Coverage expands from two stations to five. Federal ARP funds and the SAFER grant make the build-out possible.
Measure X fails. 52–48.
A 1% Board-referred special sales tax for sheriff, fire, and roads. Required two-thirds. Fell just short.
The County is warned, on the record.
Staff memo states the level of fire staffing is not sustainable without a new permanent revenue source. The Board approves the SAFER grant anyway.
Measure Z fails. 57–43.
A 1% Board-referred general sales tax projected to raise $6.2M annually — paired with a non-binding advisory (Measure A) asking the Board to spend it on fire, roads, and law enforcement. Voters rejected the design.
Station 56 goes dark.
3–2 board vote closes Mono Vista. A 5.6% cross-department cut motion to keep the station open failed for lack of a second. The simpler vote was easier.
The Citizens Initiative.
Drafted by residents. Qualified by petition. A 0.75% special sales tax — legally locked to fire. The Board doesn’t write the language. The Board doesn’t spend the money. November 2026.
WHAT's CHANGED.
THE BOARD'S MEASURE Z
- 1% general sales tax — went to the general fund.
- Advisory-only direction (Measure A) — not legally binding.
- Drafted by County staff. Referred by Board vote.
- Voters had to trust the Board would honor the advisory.
- No structural fix to the funding-control problem.
- Defeated 57–43 by a wider margin than the prior measure.
THE CITIZENS PLAN
- 0.75% special sales tax — smaller, focused, defensible.
- Legally restricted to fire services. By law. Not by promise.
- Drafted by Tuolumne residents. Qualified by petition signatures.
- No trust required — the legal lock replaces the advisory ask.
- Independent annual audit, published publicly. Sunset review built in.
- The Board has no role in writing, amending, or redirecting it.
THE HONEST ANSWERS.
Because the Board has asked twice in four years and voters have said no twice — Measure X in 2022 and Measure Z in 2024. Both measures failed not because residents don’t value fire services, but because residents didn’t trust the Board’s design. Measure Z in particular asked voters to approve a general sales tax with only an advisory promise that the money would go to fire, roads, and public safety. The advisory wasn’t binding. The Board could have spent the money on anything.
Removing the Board from the equation — by drafting the measure ourselves, qualifying it by petition, and structuring it as a special tax legally restricted to fire — fixes the trust problem at the design level. There’s nothing to trust. The lock is written into the law.
0.75% on taxable sales in the unincorporated areas of the County — about 75¢ on a $100 purchase. California sales tax does not apply to most groceries or prescription medications, so the practical impact on essential household spending is limited. For a household spending $10,000–$15,000 annually on taxable goods, the additional cost is roughly $75–$110 per year.
This is a smaller tax than Measure Z proposed (which was 1%) and is sized specifically to what fire services need — not what the Board’s general-fund projections wanted.
A “general” tax in California goes into the County’s general fund — meaning the Board of Supervisors decides each year how to spend it. Measure Z was a general tax paired with a separate non-binding advisory (Measure A) that asked the Board to spend it on fire, roads, and law enforcement. The advisory was not legally enforceable.
A “special” tax is legally restricted to the specific purpose stated in the ballot language. This initiative’s funds can only be spent on county fire services. By law. Even if a future Board wanted to redirect them, they couldn’t — it would require another vote of the people.
Because we sized the tax to what fire actually needs — closing the projected $1.8M annual shortfall, restoring Station 56 operations, and stabilizing the 3/0 staffing ratio required under the new CalFire contract. The full math comes out to roughly $4.5M annually, which gives fire services a stable funding base with headroom for equipment replacement and capital needs.
A smaller, more focused tax is easier to defend to voters, harder for opposition to mischaracterize, and honest about what’s actually being asked.
They remain priorities — but they are not what this measure funds. A single-purpose measure with a clear legal lock is what passes; a multi-purpose general tax with advisory direction is what fails. We’d rather solve one problem cleanly than three problems vaguely.
Other revenue mechanisms — a Transient Occupancy Tax increase, short-term rental registration and enforcement, a Tourism Business Improvement District — remain on the table for roads, law enforcement, and other county priorities. Several can be enacted by Board action without going back to voters at all. This initiative does not preclude any of them.
Special taxes referred by a Board of Supervisors require a two-thirds vote. Citizen-initiated special taxes, however, require only a simple majority — established by the California Supreme Court in California Cannabis Coalition v. City of Upland (2017) and affirmed by the First District Court of Appeal in City and County of San Francisco v. All Persons Interested in the Matter of Proposition C (2020). This is one of the strategic reasons the measure is being qualified by petition rather than by Board referral.
That said: there are active legal challenges and a Howard Jarvis–backed state ballot measure on the same November 2026 ballot aimed at reversing this case law. The campaign is targeting a 60%+ win to remove any ambiguity about the threshold and to protect against post-election litigation.
Funds are deposited into a dedicated Fire Services Trust Fund. The ballot language requires an independent annual audit, published publicly, showing every dollar in and every dollar out. The Board of Supervisors continues to administer the CalFire contract — that does not change — but they cannot redirect dedicated funds to non-fire purposes.
Priority uses identified in the ballot language: restoration of Mono Vista Station 56 operations, staffing under the 3/0 ratio required by the CalFire contract, equipment replacement, capital improvements to fire infrastructure, and emergency reserve.
A coalition of Tuolumne County residents, small business owners, fire and emergency service personnel, and community organizations. The full coalition list and any contributing organizations will be published on the campaign disclosure page once the committee is registered with the County Clerk.
THREE WAYS TO SECURE FIRE SERVICES.
IT's GOING TO TAKE A VILLAGE
Three things move this measure: signatures on the petition, hours in the field, and dollars in the bank. Different people give different things. The work is the same either way — getting a fire-funded ballot measure across the line, on our terms, without the Board.