Sonoma County’s new half-cent fire tax is no longer just a line on a receipt. Fresh financial filings show local fire agencies pulled in $45.7 million in the 2024-25 fiscal year, as Measure H revenue starts landing in department budgets instead of sitting in county ledgers. County tax collector Erick Roeser told the Measure H oversight committee the county has collected $78.6 million since the tax took effect on Oct. 1, 2024, with $61.9 million already out the door and another $16.7 million scheduled to go out in the coming weeks.
Oversight committee reviews first-year filings
At a Measure H oversight committee meeting in February, members dug into 25 annual financial reports for FY24-25 and confirmed that 29 local fire agencies are in line for shares of the new revenue. The reports, which each recipient agency had to file by the end of December, offer an early, patchwork look at how departments are beginning to use the voter-approved money for staffing and equipment. As reported by The Press Democrat, Roeser said the county has collected $78.6 million since the tax began Oct. 1, 2024, and that $16.7 million was due to be distributed within two weeks.
Early reports are a snapshot, not a plan
Sonoma County Fire Chiefs Association president Steve Akre told the panel the first round of paperwork is more of a rough draft than a finished product. He called the reports the first pancake, a nod to the idea that reporting and allocations should look cleaner once everyone settles into a routine. Even so, committee members and chiefs said the initial distributions are already reshaping priorities, with departments leaning into staffing, equipment and wildfire-prevention work.
What Measure H can pay for
Under the Measure H ordinance, the money can go to equipment and facilities, wildfire prevention and vegetation management, and the recruiting, hiring, training and retention of firefighters and paramedic staff. Those allowed uses, along with other program details, are laid out on the county’s Measure H information page and in the ordinance that created the oversight committee. The County of Sonoma notes the tax is meant to boost both emergency response and prevention in incorporated cities and unincorporated communities alike…