At a polling place in Pflugerville, two opposing groups have been campaigning just feet away from each other each day of early voting.
The two groups, Pflugerville Residents for Responsible Taxation (PfRRT) and the firefighters and paramedics at Travis County Emergency Services District 2 (ESD 2), are at odds over whether or not a half cent sales tax should be cut from the district.
ESD 2 leaders say if the measure passes, it would cut 40% of their revenue stream, causing at least three stations to close and more than 130 people, including 80 firefighters, to be let go.
But supporters of the tax cut disagree that it would defund the district. Pflugerville residents are no longer receiving ambulance services from ESD 2, a service they believe the sales tax should be paying for. They say ESD 2’s roughly $35 million in reserves and property tax income is more than enough to support the district’s operations.
If the measure passes, Pflugerville residents would no longer pay any sales tax to ESD 2 and residents outside city limits would pay a half cent.
Why the district's funding is under fire
To understand the discrepancy between the opposing sides, you need to know how emergency services are handled in Pflugerville.
Pflugerville doesn’t have its own city-run fire department. Instead, the area is supported by an ESD, a political subdivision created by voters to provide fire and emergency medical services. ESD 2 covers 77 square miles in northeast Travis County, including the city of Pflugerville, Wells Branch and other unincorporated areas.
Pflugerville residents voted to pay a half-cent sales tax to ESD 2 in 2000. Residents outside the city voted to pay an additional half cent in sales tax to scale up the fire department and train firefighters to perform advanced life support in 2014.
ESD 2 used to provide fire, EMS and ambulance transport services to everyone in the district with the help of Austin-Travis County EMS.
But in 2017, Austin-Travis County EMS stopped sending out ambulances out to Pflugerville.
Trevor Stokes, president of the Pflugerville Professional Firefighters Association, said by 2021, ESD 2 was unable to keep up with Pflugerville's growth on its own, and the city didn’t give the district money to meet the demand.
“This idea that we quit… no we didn’t quit,” Stokes said. “We were forced to stop providing the services because there was no funding.”
Folks outside Pflugerville still receive ambulance transport because in May 2021, they voted to create ESD 17 to overlay services in the area. City of Pflugerville residents voted against being annexed into ESD 17 later that year. The average homeowner would've paid about $12 a month if it passed.
It’s taxation without representation. We want it local. This is hopefully the first step in getting that done.Julia Ruiz, Pflugerville resident
The City of Pflugerville now contracts a private company, Allegiance, to provide ambulance services within city limits.
The first year of the contract was free, but the city now pays $1.3 million a year for the service. Residents on both sides of the tax cut issue have expressed concern with the for-profit provider. In 2023, an autopsy report found Allegiance was responsible for killing a man in Williamson County due to improper emergency medical therapy.
When a resident dials 911 for a medical emergency in Pflugerville, both Allegiance and ESD 2 paramedics are dispatched to the scene, but only Allegiance takes the patient to the hospital.
How the perspectives of the Pflugerville resident group and ESD 2 differ
Julia Ruiz, a retired Pflugerville resident, said it doesn't make sense to her that residents pay taxes to both ESD 2 and the city for the Allegiance contract.
“We’re paying twice, in my opinion,” she said.
PfRRT member Anthony Nguyen is also for the tax cut. He said the claims about loss of revenue are just scare tactics.
“They have so much money that they opened up these four stations in the last four years, and they’re still able to sock away $35 million in the bank,” Nguyen said.
Casey Villanueva, a risk reduction program manager for ESD 2, said those millions in reserves aren’t free to be spent on ambulance services.
“We have to be prepared for an emergency. We legally have to have reserves,” she said. “If a tornado came through and ripped through this area, who are you calling on to help on overtime 24/7? It’s your fire department.”
Ruiz and Nguyen said their hope is for the sales tax funds to be reallocated to the city — that way an elected city council can begin managing emergency services instead of the appointed ESD 2 board.
“It’s taxation without representation,” Ruiz said. “We want it local. This is hopefully the first step in getting that done.”
I think people have lost an understanding of the function of government. A lot of people say 'Well I don’t like taxes', well I say do you like having clean water when you turn on your tap? Do you like having firefighters?Travis County Commissioner Brigid Shea
But Stokes said there’s no guarantee those funds would end up in an emergency services bucket. If the ballot measures passes in November, another election will be held in May to determine where it will go.
“This is an attempt to defund the fire department with no plan,” Stokes said.
Stokes also said he believes PfRRT's intent is to free the sales tax money up to go to a Municipal Development District, a district created to generate economic development and growth opportunities in an area. Campaign finance records show developers have funded a the majority of the campaign.
Stokes also said the tax cut would tank the district's ISO rating, a nationwide rating system by the Insurance Services Office that measures a community’s ability to respond to a fire. ESD 2 currently has the highest possible ISO rating, a 1.
That could make Pflugerville property owner’s insurance rates rise by more than 30%, he said.
“It strikes me as incredibly reckless and harmful that [PfRRT is] taking action that would cause everyone's property insurance to increase dramatically,” said Travis County Commissioner Brigid Shea, who’s precinct covers part of ESD 2.
Shea said the consequence of cutting the district's funding is not worth a half-cent sales tax that most residents probably don't notice.
“I think people have lost an understanding of the function of government. A lot of people say 'Well I don’t like taxes', well I say do you like having clean water when you turn on your tap?," she said. "Do you like having firefighters?”
PfRRT initially tried to get the sales tax cut on the ballot in 2022. They garnered 7,000 signatures and brought the petition to the ESD 2 board, but the district rejected it, saying the petition language wasn’t consistent with the law.
PfRRT then sued ESD 2 for failing to call an election when at least 5% of registered voters requested one — a rule under the Texas Health and Safety Code. PfRRT ultimately won the legal battle in the Texas Supreme Court and the ESD 2 board subsequently approved the election and put it on the Nov. 5 ballot.
