A long running dispute over ambulance services and sales tax revenues in Travis County Emergency Services District 2 (ESD 2) will be on the ballot this November.
ESD 2 was created in 2000 to provide fire and emergency ambulances services to the area. ESD 2 now serves a 77 square mile area including Pflugerville, the Wells Branch area, and unincorporated areas around Round Rock, Taylor, Hutto, and Manor. It is funded through property tax and sales tax revenues from the area.
In 2020, ESD 2 told district residents that by 2025, the district would have a more than $10 million dollar operating loss.At the time, the district leaders said that if they didn’t get additional revenues, they would have to discontinue providing ambulance services to certain areas.
A proposal was put forth to voters to create an overlay taxing jurisdiction to provide additional tax revenues to ESD 2.
The opposition to that proposal argued that the financial projections were not true and that the new district was duplicative. By a vote of almost 2 to 1, voters in Pflugerville agreed and rejected the new taxing district.
Following the defeat of the proposition in 2022, ESD 2 stopped providing ambulance services to the city of Pflugerville even though they had the same tax revenues coming in as the year before the proposition failed.
An analysis of the finances of ESD 2 today by the group that opposed the 2022 proposition, shows that the district has built up reserves of $57 million, accounting for more than 18 months of operating revenues. It is not the dire picture that was presented in 2020 of catastrophic operating losses. Yet, the ambulance services have not been restored.
The district does not dispute the amount of money held in reserves but does challenge the group’s claims about how that money can be spent.
After the district stopped providing ambulance services to Pflugerville residents, a group of citizens started collecting petition signatures with the intention of reducing the sales tax revenues given to ESD 2 and, eventually, redirecting revenues to the city of Pflugerville to provide ambulance services to the area.
That petition, signed by 7,000 area residents, was successful despite ESD 2’s attempt to keep it off the ballot.
On January 17, 2023 the ESD Board of Commissioners, which is an appointed board, refused to put the valid petition on the May 2023 ballot despite it receiving the requisite number of signatures.
“Why did the unelected Travis County ESD2 commissioners reject a petition calling for an election with 7,000 signatures?,” asked the organization supporting the petition.
The group had to file a lawsuit that went all the way to the Texas Supreme Court, who forced ESD 2 board to put the issue on the ballot this November.
“I have never seen a governmental body behave the way the appointed ESD#2 Board has, by flagrantly using its taxpayer-funded website and political mailings to discourage people from even signing the petition, and then refusing to call the election after receiving a valid petition,” said attorney and former Travis County Judge Bill Aleshire.
“This lawsuit respects the rights of taxpayers who signed our petition and rejects ESD#2’s absurd denial of the taxpayers’ legal rights. We expect to prevail and hope the legal process can be expedited to give our voters an election at the earliest date,” said a spokeswoman for PFRRTAX.
On May 24, 2024, the Texas Supreme Court ordered the board for ESD2 to put the item on the ballot.
This November, district voters will vote on Travis County ESD 2 proposition to decide whether ESD 2 will keep the revenues generated from the 0.5% sales tax or whether those resources will be made available for other possible uses, such as the city of Pflugerville taking over ambulance services for the area, which has been suggested by some.
The leadership of ESD 2 says that if the measure were to pass, they would have to cut services even more, including eliminating more than 100 positions. The group supporting the proposition points to the funds in reserves and says that ESD 2 currently has 115 vacant positions so no existing officers would need to be laid off.
The group also points out that the ESD 2 board has proposed a 29% increase in the property tax rate for fiscal year 2024/25.