Of the two Pikes Peak area fire districts that brought funding requests to voters this November, one had a strong reversal victory, while the other took one step forward and two steps back.

The results could hold indicators for how local firefighting is funded in Colorado as costs rise and revenue plateaus.

“We’re pretty close to being right where we were last year,” said Carl Tatum, Chief at the Hanover Fire Protection District south of Fountain.

Tatum’s small, rural fire district had two items on the ballot for just a few hundred voters. The first, successful, would extend the district’s property tax mill levy at its current rate. The second would have allowed the district to waive the yearly percentage increase limit on property tax revenue imposed in the new tax law.

As of this year, the increase limit is 5.25%. The measure lost by about 10 points.

What Tatum assumes voters may not have known is that the small fire district already had revenue increase limits waived after the passage of the Taxpayer Bill of Rights amendment in the 1990s. The ballot question would have waived a new imposition rather than taking away one already in place.

Required ballot language did not help explain the difference, said Tatum.

“Right now, it’s kind of a blessing we’re able to keep what we have, but it derails how we’ve been able to capitalize on grants and put that away for capital expenditures that we’re no longer going to be able to do,” he said.

With a limit on revenue increases, Tatum said his district may need to avoid grants that would put them over their revenue limits. Capital expenses, including new equipment for volunteers, eat into the stagnant budget, as do rising insurance costs. The district was also itself a victim of a fire last summer, when one station garage partially burned and requires reconstruction.

“All the stuff hitting all at once is going to cause us some problems,” said Tatum.

Another problem for a small fire district under TABOR restrictions is growth, said Cimarron Hills Fire Department Chief Andrew York. If a new development gets built in a fire district under revenue restrictions, the budget boost could well exceed the increase limit and need to be refunded.

But the new houses or businesses will need protection regardless, he said.

Cimarron Hills fared better with its own ballot measure this year, targeting sales tax. The district north of Peterson Space Force Base on the east side of Colorado Springs asked for and received a 1% sales tax from voters.

York attributes the win to better voter outreach. The same ask in the 2024 election was unsuccessful, but this year passed with an overwhelming 26 points.

The department’s main point to convey was that sales tax helps nonresidents who work and shop in the district pay for fire services.

“They’re getting those services, but they’re not paying for them,” he said.

Fire districts themselves cannot campaign for their ballot measures. For help this year, Cimarron Hills reached out to its union, the IAFF local 4502, which also represents Falcon Fire Protection District and Black Forest Fire Rescue. The union helped with mailers, signs and volunteers.

York said he was worried about more rural districts like Hanover, which do not have the resources for voter outreach on funding requests.

Tatum said Hanover struggled to make its case to voters. With just seven full-time staff, the district lacked connections for election outreach help from volunteers or off-duty staff.

“I think we probably could have done a better job of educating the voters,” he said.

York said that the financial strain on small fire districts was rising as budgets remain small for increasing apparatus and staff costs. The cost of a new fire engine can exceed $1 million.

“I would not be surprised if they started having conversations about closing their doors,” he said.