A major Denver metro area fire department says they’re at the brink of a budget emergency, and anticipate a shortfall of $50 million a year for the next decade. It’s hoping a proposed property tax increase can help close the gap.
South Metro Fire Rescue serves nearly 600,000 residents in Arapahoe, Douglas and Jefferson counties. As communities like Sterling Ranch and Lone Tree grow, that number is only going up. The department says its call volume has increased 24% in the last five years.
To address that shortfall, they’re now asking voters to approve a property tax increase from 9.25 to 12.25 mills. A mill is $1 for every $1,000 of assessed property value.
South Metro says its property tax rate has not changed in more than 20 years, but now it needs to increase that revenue to account for this shortfall.
“What is that going to look like if we’re going to have to lay people off?” asked Brent Chapman, South Metro Fire lieutenant.
South Metro firefighters are worried about a projected $500 million shortfall in the next decade.
“Every time I roll into a station or work overtime shifts somewhere else, people ask, ‘What does that look like?’ So I know it’s on the forefront of people’s minds,” said Chapman.
South Metro Board of Directors Chair Jim Albee says the deficit is largely due to state legislation reducing property taxes that cut revenue for districts like South Metro.
“That legislation affected us, as well as every other special district in the state,” said Albee. “It’s really a combination of our revenue and our resources being impacted by legislation, and then the cost to continue to serve what is a growing community and a community that calls more often.”
But rising costs, tariffs and growth are making things worse.
“We have buildings going up all over the place. Our call volume has increased,” said Chapman. “We’re getting busier and busier.”
Despite early surveys suggesting neighbors favored a sales tax increase, South Metro ultimately chose to put a property tax increase in front of voters.
“The main reason that the board opted for property tax is that it gives you some predictability of what your future revenues and future resources are going to be,” said Albee. “The property tax question, we felt, was the better question for us to put in front of the voters. That would allow us to continue to get the resources that we need to serve the community the way that they communicated to us that they want to be.”
Ballot Measure 7A is a mill levy increase of 3 mills, or about $140 a year for a homeowner with a $750,000 home.
South Metro is known for offering high salaries and top-tier health and wellness benefits. Albee said the department is already making cuts to make up for some of the shortfall, but it’s not enough.
“We have made reductions already, right? So in our 2025 and our 2026 budget, we’ve identified millions of dollars of reductions that we have put in place for this year that we will put in place next year, regardless of what 7A, whatever happens with Ballot Measure 7A. There is no cut scenario that gets us to the level of resources needed to serve over the next 10 years,” said Albee.
Albee says those existing reductions include restructuring employee benefits, hiring and vehicle leasing.
South Metro employs several wellness experts with salaries well into the six figures. Albee says these positions pay for themselves because they save the department on workers’ compensation and time away from work by preventing firefighter injuries.
“What we don’t have a way to measure is the injuries that our wellness folks have saved us from, both on the physical side and on the mental health side,” said Chapman.
“Our intent is that we need to be able to compensate people at a level that attracts them and retains them, brings them in to do a very difficult job serving our community,” said Albee.
South Metro has trained paramedics on point-of-care ultrasounds to be used in the field.
“That’s a great diagnostic tool to be put out in the field in that pre-hospital environment that allows our paramedics to be able to diagnose things differently and to be able to communicate and convey that to the emergency room.”
If the measure doesn’t pass, Albee says it could lead to understaffing and longer response times. The organization would try to reduce staffing with attrition before employing layoffs. The department typically loses 30 to 40 firefighters a year.
“We will ultimately have to reduce the number of people that work here,” said Albee. “In 2026, we wouldn’t hire anybody. We would not hire firefighters.”
“The workload doesn’t change,” said Chapman. “What would change is the amount of people we have to perform that work.”
He adds that to fill in those gaps, firefighters would be stretched thinner.
“Fire trucks still gotta go out the door. Somebody has to fill those seats. So we start talking about increased overtime costs, maybe mandatory hire backs, things of that nature, which increases our exposure to hazardous environments, to traumatic events, to risk to injury, all those types of things. For us, that will have a massive impact on the firefighters here at South Metro,” said Chapman.
South Metro says programs that support first responder health, such as cancer prevention and cardiac initiatives, could be cut.
The department says they are focused on maintaining the reliable, high-quality emergency services their community relies on. But without stable funding, the department could face tough cuts that would make it difficult to sustain the same level of service.
“Whether 7A passes or doesn’t pass, we’ll continue to preserve service as long as possible,” said Albee.
Sterling Ranch is one of the growing communities in South Metro’s service area that will soon require an additional station. The development company shared the following statement in conjunction with South Metro:
