SACRAMENTO — Ten years ago this week, firestorms tore through Altadena, Laguna Beach and Malibu, destroying 960 buildings -- and saving Proposition 172.
The measure, on the Nov. 2, 1993, ballot, had been lost in obscurity to most voters until fires erupted just a week before election day. Its backers quickly crafted a television advertisement with fresh footage of heroic firefighters to urge voters to approve Proposition 172, which dedicated a half-cent sales tax increase to city and county public safety programs.
Proposition 172 passed, most strongly in Southern California. But in the decade since, very little of the more than $18.5 billion it has generated has gone to firefighters.
In the Southern California counties scorched this week by what is likely to be the most expensive series of fires in state history, supervisors have directed nearly all of the Proposition 172 money to the sheriff's, district attorney's and probation departments.
Firefighters who have long been irritated by the issue say they are now angry enough to do something about it.
"In our view, it's just not right that a proposition that was passed on the basis of what it would do for police and fire, and was pushed over the 50% mark by the public's response to a major fire, has yielded so little for the fire service," said Carroll Wills, a spokesman for the California Professional Firefighters.
In Orange County, where none of $1.9 billion in Proposition 172 money has gone to the county fire authority, firefighters say they intend to ask supervisors for any money generated beyond a 2% annual growth in the sales tax revenue.
As it is, the sheriff's and district attorney's offices now divide all of Orange County's Proposition 172 money. "We are asking for such an infinitesimally small amount of money that it's almost pathetic," said Joe Kerr, leader of the Orange County Professional Firefighters.
If supervisors reject that request, he said, firefighters may launch a county initiative, asking voters to redirect 25% of the Proposition 172 money to the county fire agency.
"The reason we're getting more aggressive ... is there's smoke in the sky," Kerr said. "We're hoping to right the wrong."
Firefighters are bolstering their argument with an April opinion from the attorney general's office stating that county supervisors have the discretion each year to change how they distribute Proposition 172 money. That discretion includes giving money to public safety agencies that haven't gotten the money in the past.
