The cash-strapped East Contra Costa Fire Protection District will collect an additional $658,000 a year in property taxes under a detachment proposal set to go before the Contra Costa Local Agency Formation on Aug. 10, 2016. Residential developers working in East Contra Costa have become increasingly concerned that the fire district’s lack of adequate funding could fuel anti-housing sentiment. Under the proposal, LAFCO would detach approximately 480 acres from the Byron Bethany Irrigation District that overlap with the Town of Discovery Bay Community Services District service area. The properties in this overlap area in unincorporated Discovery Bay no longer receive BBID’s primarily agricultural water services and as a result, BBID is no longer entitled to the property tax proceeds. The money reverts to Contra Costa County, which has agreed to allocate the funds to the East Contra Fire Protection District.
Click here to read to the Contra Costa LAFCO staff report. In addition to the added property taxes, the cities of Brentwood and Oakley are considering placing utility user tax measures on the November 2016 ballot and dedicating the money to fire services.
