Pflugerville firefighters push back on proposed petition to redirect sales tax to city

Pflugerville city council members discuss funding of first responders

This is a discussion that has been taking place for a while, but the most recent development was last month when a petition was delivered to Travis County ESD #2.

PFLUGERVILLE, Texas - Ahead of Tuesday night’s Pflugerville City Council meeting, Pflugerville firefighters gathered to voice concerns regarding a petition that was turned in last month.

The petition, put together by Pflugerville Residents for Responsible Taxation, aims to transfer a half-cent sales tax that currently funds Travis County ESD No. 2 to the City of Pflugerville to fund its own emergency services.

"Travis County ESD No. 2 voluntarily quit providing ambulance services to the city even though they have the money," said Melody Ryan, campaign spokesperson. "We want our local elected officials to be in charge of our taxes and services, and they are accountable to the voters."

Ryan said if the sales tax is transferred, the city could choose to give it back to Travis County ESD No. 2 or use it to establish its own city emergency services.

"The ESD No. 2 2023 budget includes an $11 million increase in revenue, and they have over $24 million in excess taxes collected over time, so they have plenty of money to continue with current operations and not make any changes in staffing," said Ryan.

She also said Travis County ESD No. 2 has more than 100 budgeted positions that are vacant.

Travis County ESD No. 2 stopped providing ambulance services to the City of Pflugerville in January 2022.

Starting in 2011, according to ESD No. 2 Chief Nick Perkins, there were growing response times from Pflugerville’s current provider, Austin-Travis County EMS. An additional sales tax was implemented so that Travis County ESD No. 2 could step in and help, training firefighters to become paramedics via fire truck.

"The other needed component was additional funding to provide the ambulance services," said Chief Perkins. "We had talked with the City and Travis County, and they were on board initially to complete the necessary funding, but things changed, and those decisions were redacted, and we never got that funding to complete what we needed to do ambulance services."

Josh Stubblefield, president of the Pflugerville Professional Firefighters Association Local 4137, also called it a "false narrative" that ESD No. 2 had voluntarily "quit" providing services.

In 2021, the City hired a third party to conduct a study which found that Travis County ESD No. 2’s "financial crisis is self-imposed and the need for $2.79 million from the City of Pflugerville to subsidize services is unsubstantiated."

Chief Perkins maintained that if the recent petition is validated and approved by voters, it would result in the loss of roughly a third of the district’s annual budget. He also said they would have to layoff up to 100 firefighters and staff and potentially increase EMS response times from 8 minutes to more than 20 minutes.

"These are not scare tactics," said Chief Perkins. "I am trying to inform the public of what this means."

Chief Perkins said last year alone, ESD No. 2 firefighters responded to more than 4,000 emergency calls in the City of Pflugerville.

"There’s no plan by petitioners, there’s no plan by the city council to backfill that service in any way," said Stubblefield. "So once we’re not able to provide that service then it’s just not there."

The "Vote Yes for EMS" petition was turned in on Dec. 16 with more than 7,000 signatures. According to the City of Pflugerville, city council members have thirty days after signatures are validated to decide to call an election.