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By Cathy Locke -- El Dorado County officials say they aren't ready to shut off the spigot, but they will re-evaluate the flow of county funds to small, rural fire districts. Since 1999, the county has given more than $7 million to the districts.

The move follows an April grand jury report that calls for the county to stop subsidizing six west slope districts and to instead encourage the small districts to consolidate or merge with larger districts.

"These subsidies raise a fairness issue for taxpayers outside these districts who are supporting their own fire protection district through various taxes while also contributing, through the county's general fund, an extra amount of money to these subsidized districts," the grand jury report says.
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From fiscal year 1999 through 2008, the county has provided nearly $7.3 million in property tax augmentations to eight districts. They include Garden Valley, Georgetown, Latrobe, Mosquito, Pioneer and Rescue on the western slope, and Fallen Leaf and Meeks Bay in the Lake Tahoe area.

Laura Gill, county chief administrative officer, said the county's financial assistance may have had some perverse consequences. She cited the defeat of a ballot measure to increase property taxes to support fire services in the Pioneer Fire Protection District, in the south county area, and Rescue voters' rejection of a merger with the El Dorado Hills Fire Department.

Administrative staff members in some of the subsidized departments also have received increases in their retirement benefits, she said, while other districts have used augmentation monies to boost their fund balances.

Tom Keating, chief of the Rescue Fire Protection District, defended the county subsidies during ... read