Black Butte Ranch FD voters handily approve levy

The only measure on Tuesday’s election ballot in Central Oregon passed easily, as the Black Butte Ranch Rural Fire District won overwhelming voter approval of a renewed 5-year local option tax to fund operations.

Nearly 200 votes were returned, about 63 percent of those mailed, and 176 (more than 91 percent) were in favor of Measure 9-128, to just 17 opposed, Deschutes County election results showed.

The fire district has a permanent tax rate of about $1.47 of assessed value. The local option tax adds $1.76 per $1,000, or $66 a month for a home valued at $450,000. The newly approved amount is the same tax rate as under the district’s current local option tax, which expires in June 2020.

The renewed levy will raise about $1.2 million of the district’s annual budget, which totals about $2 million.

Without the levy extension, fire district officials said they would have had to look at reducing or eliminating some services.