Why do we need elected commissioners for emergency service districts?
Because our current emergency service districts are taxing us without representation.
Travis County ESD2 has a 50 million dollar budget. This is as large as our city’s general operation budget. Which should be govern by elected commissioners.
Our unelected ESD commissioners have increased taxes as high as allowed by state laws, without having an election.
Travis county ESD2 is collecting from two different property taxes, 2 different sales taxes, and fees from our insurance companies.
For our unelected ESD 2 Board, the taxes collected are never enough. We need ESD Board members that live inside the district.
Our commissioners should be accountable to the people who live in the district and elected by the people. Support HB 1775 to have an accountable government and elected emergency service district boards.
More than 7,000+ Signatures Were Submitted When Only 4,400 Were Needed
Pflugerville, Texas — Three voters who signed a petition to roll back excess sales taxes have sued the Travis County Emergency Services District #2 after ESD #2 refused to call an election so voters can decide the issue. ESD #2 quit providing ambulance service to the people of Pflugerville, and the Plaintiffs, Jennifer Pakenham, David Rogers, and Kristi Powell, along with almost 7,100 other voters want the ESD#2 sales tax decreased. The Plaintiffs are represented by Former Travis County Judge Bill Aleshire.
“This lawsuit is necessary to protect the right of taxpayers to petition for a tax-reduction election,” Aleshire said. “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. The ESD #2 sales tax was doubled in 2014 in an election that passed by 6 votes, a ½-percent margin with only 597 voting in favor. But, in December, Pflugerville and ESD #2 residents presented a new petition with 7,097 taxpayer signatures calling for a new election. There are many assaults on democracy these days, and I am proud to stand up in court for these voters to protect the right of all voters to decide how much taxes should be,” Aleshire said.
The filed lawsuit calls for an expedited writ of mandamus seeking a court to order the Emergency Services District ESD #2 board to call a sales tax-rate reduction election. The petition is the largest signature gathering effort in the history of the city of Pflugerville and was led by Pflugerville Residents for Responsible Taxation (PFRRTAX).
ESD #2’s website, which is funded by taxpayers, is clearly engaging in election-related political messaging on their website. The ESD has also engaged in direct taxpayer-funded negative political advertising using attack mailing.
“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 PFRRTAX spokeswoman Melody Ryan. “A court will be required to call the election since ESD #2’s unelected board refused to do its duty. Since ESD #2 has been building a MASSIVE reserve and not using the sales tax to provide ambulance service to the City, this election is the first step to re-allocate a portion of the sales tax to the City, which is currently providing ambulance service,” Ryan added.
Pflugerville Residents for Responsible Taxation (www.VoteYES4EMS.com) is a non-partisan citizen group dedicated to responsible and sustainable taxation for reasonable delivery of government services, since 2016. ###
Unelected Travis County ESD 2 denies valid petition with 7,000 signatures.
A citizen group, exercising their democratic right to petition their government, is attempting to transfer sales tax to the City of Pflugerville to help fund ambulance services now provided by the City after ESD quit ambulance services in January 2022.
Why did the unelected Travis County ESD2 commissioners reject a petition calling for an election with 7,000 signatures?
In 2021, when Travis County wanted to double tax us? This is what they thought of voting.
Now, when the unelected Travis County ESD 2 doesn’t like what the petition says, they suppress the vote.
Why did Travis County ESD 2 deny the rights of over 7,000 voters?
They only want people to vote if it’s to increase taxes.
Travis County ESD2 commissioners’ decision to deny the community the right to vote was not totally unexpected. We anticipated that the commissioners would try to find any reason to deny the district the right to vote, but no specific reason was given.
What can we expect from a board that has threatened our public safety in the past by using scare tactics to discontinue ambulance services unless the city pays millions of dollars. This decision by Travis County ESD2 is consistent with their history of using aggressive tactics to get what they want. We are disappointed by the ESD2 actions and will explore all legal remedies.
