South Metro is considering following three options to address significant budget shortfalls due to 2024 state legislation. The chart below shows the 10-Year forecast for revenue with and without that legislation and anticipated expenditures. The tabs below have information about the three potential options. Be sure to click each tab to see details.

• Response times for fires, medical emergencies, and accidents could be impacted
• Smaller firefighting crews could compromise safety during emergencies and affect patient care in life-threatening medical situations
• Reduced wildfire response and other specialty units including water rescue, hazardous materials, technical rescue, and airport firefighting units may be understaffed or unavailable
• In extreme budget scenarios, fire station closures and delays in adding new stations that would serve our growing community are possible

• Ask voters to approve a modest property tax increase. For example, raising the mill levy from 9.25 to 12.25 would cost the average homeowner with a $750,000 home about $11.72 more per month (the cost of one streaming service or one fast food meal) while generating around $50 million each year for South Metro.
• Aside from districts increasing their mill levies to merge with South Metro, voters have not been asked for a property tax increase in 20 years.
• Use our Property Tax Calculator to see how much it might potentially cost you if South Metro were to increase property taxes by 3 mills.

• Ask voters to approve a 0.5% sales tax, which would cost $0.50 (50 cents) for every $100 spent while generating about $50 million per year for fire and emergency services.
• For the first time, state law allows fire districts to collect sales tax to support critical services.