Oct 5 2026

Vote No on Measure PFD

Vote No on Measure PFD on November 3. Nobody in Pasadena is against firefighters. But Measure PFD is the City asking residents for $22.1 million a year in new money because City Hall won’t make fire protection a priority inside the budget it already has.

Pasadena families are already paying some of the highest sales taxes in California, rising rents, rising insurance premiums, and post–Eaton Fire costs. Now the City wants a new parcel tax stacked on top. Before we hand over another $300 a year per household for the next 14 years, voters deserve an answer to one simple question: where is all the money going?

What Measure PFD would cost you

Measure PFD charges 19 cents per square foot of building on every improved property, every year, for 14 years. That adds up to roughly $309 million taken out of the local economy ($22.1 million × 14 years). It requires a two-thirds vote to pass.

Property Size New tax per year Over 14 years
Small home or condo 1,200 sq ft $228 $3,192
Typical home (City’s own example) 1,600 sq ft $304 $4,256
Larger family home 2,500 sq ft $475 $6,650
12-unit apartment building 10,000 sq ft $1,900 $26,600
Large office building 500,000 sq ft $95,000 $1,330,000

Renters are not off the hook. Landlords and commercial owners pay by the square foot, even on vacant space, and those costs can work their way into rents and into what local shops charge. Low-income seniors and people who qualify for a disability exemption are exempt; everyone else pays.

Taxes on top of taxes

Pasadena already taxes us at nearly every turn. The combined sales tax was 10.5% and rose to 11% on October 1 under the County’s Measure ER. Back in 2018, voters approved Measure I, a three-quarter-cent sales tax that was supposed to shore up city services.

It hasn’t been enough. The City has balanced its General Fund with one-time money and reserves three years in a row, and city staff describe a “widening structural deficit” where spending growth keeps outpacing revenue. The FY 2027 budget alone needed $6.8 million in one-time funds to balance.

In July, staff put five new taxes in front of the Council: a quarter-cent sales tax, a parking tax, a real estate transfer tax, a business-tax overhaul, and a parcel tax. Their own report recommended a parcel tax for fire because those measures “often receive strong community support when tied to valued services.” In other words: put firefighters on the ballot because voters are more likely to say yes. Measure PFD is that strategy. If it passes, expect the next tax to follow.

Measures H, E and ER: we’ve seen this movie

Every few years a new measure promises better services. The taxes stick, the rates climb, and the problems stay. Measure PFD follows the same script.

Measure When What it does Cost to Pasadena residents The catch
Pasadena Measure H 2022 Rent control charter amendment that created a new Rent Stabilization Department, paid for by a yearly fee on every rental unit About $237 per rental unit per year, including rented condos and single-family homes; it can’t be passed to tenants Sold with about $310,000 in startup costs. The department’s budget grew from $2.9M to about $5.6M a year in three years, and the per-unit fee rose from $92 to $237. Housing providers pay millions a year, with little to show for it beyond a bigger bureaucracy
County Measure E 2024 County Fire parcel tax: 6¢ per sq ft, rising 2% a year, no end date Not on Pasadena bills: Pasadena runs its own fire department County Fire’s rate is less than a third of PFD’s. A 1,600 sq ft home pays about $96 under E vs. $304 under PFD
County Measure ER June 2026 Half-cent county sales tax for 5 years, about $1 billion a year Pasadena’s sales tax hit 11% on Oct 1, 2026 Passed 50.6% to 49.4%. It’s a general tax, so the money isn’t locked to health care
Pasadena Measure PFD Nov 2026 19¢ per sq ft parcel tax for 14 years, $22.1M a year About $304 a year for a typical home Stacked on everything above

The pattern is clear. New programs start small and grow fast: Measure H went from a $310,000 startup promise to a $5.6 million-a-year department billed to housing providers. Sales tax keeps climbing, from Measure I in 2018 to Measure ER this month. And even next to County Fire’s own parcel tax, PFD asks Pasadena homeowners to pay more than three times the rate. More taxes, and residents are still told services can’t keep up.

Where is all the money going?

Not to the Fire Department first. The Police Department’s proposed budget for this fiscal year is about $131.9 million, up 8.6%. The Fire Department’s is about $81 million, up 4.4%. In one year, police grew by roughly $10 million; fire by about $3.4 million.

Police got 3x Fire’s budget increase this year Pasadena FY 2027 proposed budgets, $ millions. Grey = last year’s level, blue = this year’s increase. Police $131.9M +$10.4M increase (+8.6%) Fire $81.0M +$3.4M increase (+4.4%)
Source: Pasadena Now reporting on FY 2027 proposed department budgets (Police ~$131.9M, +8.6%; Fire ~$81M, +4.4%); prior-year levels computed from those increases.

Part of the police increase is a $4.1 million jump in liability costs from a spike in legal claims, plus new spending tied to the 2028 Olympics. That one liability line is larger than Fire’s entire increase this year. Meanwhile, Fire has 12 paramedic vacancies and had to ask the Council for a single extra training slot that costs $136,500. This is a priorities problem, not a revenue problem.

Firefighters are already doing the City’s homelessness and mental-health work

Medical calls are now the majority of what the Pasadena Fire Department responds to, and many involve people living on the street or in a mental-health crisis: overdoses, wounds, exposure, someone in distress who needs a paramedic, not a patrol car. That work is real, it’s growing, and it isn’t paid for by the programs created to address it.

  • PORT runs on firefighters. The Pasadena Outreach Response Team, launched in 2019, puts a Pasadena firefighter in the field with a public health nurse, a social worker and a Union Station outreach worker. Last fiscal year PORT answered more than 310 homelessness-related 911 calls, did 250 field health screenings and handed out more than 80 doses of Narcan. The City’s own budget credits it with reducing the need for police response.
  • Encampment fires are a wildfire threat. Pasadena Fire traced a brush fire in Devil’s Gate Reservoir, near JPL, to a homeless encampment, and residents have warned for years about warming fires in the Arroyo Seco, one of the most fire-prone corridors in the city. Next door in Los Angeles, the LAFD logged about 46 homeless-related fires a day last year, each one pulling an engine and often an ambulance off other calls.
  • Police aren’t equipped for medical emergencies. PPD’s HOPE team pairs officers with a county mental-health clinician, but an overdose, an injury or a fire needs paramedics and engines. Those calls land on Fire.

Now look at where the money sits:

Who Budget
Pasadena Police Department (FY 2027) about $131.9 million
Pasadena Fire Department (FY 2027) about $81 million
Pasadena Housing Department (FY 2027) about $58 million, up 18.1%
County Measure A homelessness and housing tax about $1 billion a year countywide

Billions are flowing countywide for homelessness and housing, Pasadena’s Housing budget just jumped 18%, and Police keeps growing. Yet the department that answers the 2 a.m. call at the encampment is told to go ask homeowners for a parcel tax. Not all of that money can be moved; much of the Housing budget is restricted grant money for affordable housing projects. But money meant for homelessness response and public health should help pay for the firefighters doing that work every day.

One more thing voters should demand: the City does not publish how many Fire and EMS calls involve unhoused residents or mental-health crises, or what they cost. Before anyone asks for $22.1 million a year, the Council should put those numbers on the table.

Chart guide: 6 reasons to vote No on PFD

# The pitch The facts Why vote No
1 “Only 19 cents a square foot” About $304 a year for a typical 1,600 sq ft home; $95,000 a year for a large office building, even if half empty It’s real money for 14 years, about $309M total
2 “We need new revenue” Sales tax is now 11%; Measure I added three-quarters of a cent in 2018 Pasadena has a spending problem, not a revenue problem
3 “The General Fund can’t cover fire” General Fund is about $383M; the City Manager says 1% in savings frees $7.2M a year Fund fire first inside the existing budget
4 “Fire is a top priority” Police got about $10.4M more this year; Fire got about $3.4M more Actions show where the real priorities are
5 “It’s just for fire” Staff picked a fire parcel tax because such measures win votes; four other new taxes were on the table PFD is the first step, not the last
6 “Everyone benefits” Only property owners pay; commuters and visitors who use services pay nothing The bill lands on homeowners and, through rents, on tenants

Bottom line: Vote No on PFD. Tell City Hall to fund firefighters first with the money it already has.

What the City should do instead

A No vote is not a vote against firefighters. It is a vote to make City Hall fund them first, out of the money it already collects.

  1. Mayor and Council: direct the City Manager to fund Fire first. The Council named fire modernization one of five “sacrosanct” priorities and told staff to find cuts elsewhere to pay for it. Then it asked voters for a new tax instead. Hold the City Manager to the Council’s own words in the next budget.
  2. Let homelessness money pay for homelessness response. Fire should formally request a share of Measure A homelessness funds, the part of Measure ER reserved for Pasadena Public Health (which co-runs PORT with Fire), and other homeless-services grants, to cover PORT staffing, encampment fire prevention and Arroyo brush clearance.
  3. Rein in police cost growth. Police spending is rising twice as fast as Fire’s this year, driven by pensions, labor contracts and legal claims. Liability payouts alone jumped $4.1 million. Where Fire and PORT take over medical and mental-health calls, the money should follow the calls.
  4. Find the 1%. The City Manager himself said a 1% efficiency gain or reallocation in the General Fund would free about $7.2 million a year. Three percent gets close to what PFD would raise.
  5. Publish the numbers. Report how many Fire and EMS calls involve unhoused residents, mental-health crises and encampment fires, and what they cost.
  6. Phase the fire plan. Rebuild Stations 33 and 37 first with bonds or capital funds, and stop bundling a new headquarters and training center into one 14-year tax.
  7. Come back with a fair, smaller measure if a gap remains, one that shares the cost beyond property owners and shows voters a real spending plan.

What you can do: Vote No on PFD, then call or email your councilmember and Mayor Victor Gordo. Ask them to direct the City Manager to make Fire a first-dollar priority in the budget and to tap homelessness and public-health funds for the work firefighters already do.

What supporters say

Voters should weigh the other side before deciding:

  • Real needs. Supporters point to aging stations, rising 911 and medical call volumes, a paramedic shortage, and growing wildfire risk after the Eaton Fire.
  • Guardrails. The money is legally restricted to fire and emergency services, with independent audits, a 14-year sunset, no automatic annual increase, and exemptions for qualifying seniors and disabled owners.
  • Insurance. Some residents’ groups argue a modernized department could help hold down fire insurance costs.
  • Broad backing. Firefighters Local 809, the nurses’ union UNAC/UHCP, Supervisor Kathryn Barger, and the West Pasadena Residents Association support it. Opponents include property-owner, apartment and realtor groups.
  • The budget reality. City staff say the General Fund can no longer cover the department’s long-term needs, and police costs are driven partly by contracts and pensions that can’t be cut quickly.

Our answer: the needs are real, which is exactly why fire should be funded first from existing revenue, not handed a new tax while other spending grows unchecked.

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