The Northwest Fire District is asking Pima County voters to approve the sale of $72,235,000 in bonds (Prop 424) to be financed over 20 years.
These bonds would pay for construction and equipment for fire stations (including the demolition of an existing fire station and rebuild), purchase of land for a future station and other fire apparatus and equipment.
Demolish and reconstruct Fire Station 331 at a cost of $21,570,389*.
*Cost includes contingency funding
New construction of Fire Station 340 ($21,614,046*) and purchase of aerial platform apparatus ($2,674,114*).
*Cost includes contingency funding
Purchase land and construct Station 342 ($23,396,799*).
*Cost includes contingency funding
Expansion of Fleet Facility ($2,978,890*).
*Cost includes contingency funding
The Northwest Fire District was formed by Pima County in 1983. It merged with the neighboring Flowing Wells Fire District in 1996. NWFD entered into a formal intergovernmental agreement with the Town of Marana in 1998.
Today, including Marana, it has 11 strategically positioned fire stations across 151 square miles of rural Pima County. It is Arizona’s largest fire district with fully cross-trained firefighters-EMTs and paramedics.
NWFD serves one of the fastest-growing areas in Southern Arizona. As the community grows, emergency calls increase and existing fire stations cover larger populations. Without additional facilities and resources, response times can increase because crews must travel farther or respond from already busy stations. The District continually evaluates development trends, call volume, and response data to determine when and where future fire stations and resources will be needed.
Northwest Fire District is committed to being a responsible steward of taxpayer resources. The District's budget supports essential services, including personnel, emergency response vehicles, equipment, medical supplies, communications technology, facility maintenance, and fleet maintenance, while maintaining a strong focus on fiscal responsibility.
To maximize the value of every tax dollar, the District continuously evaluates its operations to improve efficiency through effective leadership, strategic resource management, consolidation of functions where appropriate, and partnerships with neighboring public safety agencies to enhance emergency response.
The District also pursues grants and collaborative purchasing opportunities with other government agencies to leverage greater buying power and reduce costs.
As part of its long-term financial strategy, the Governing Board has stated its commitment to issuing new bond debt only as existing bond debt is retired. This approach is intended to help maintain a static combined property tax rate while addressing the community's future public safety infrastructure needs.
Fire districts are funded primarily through property tax, unlike cities and towns, which can fund their budgets through a variety of sources, including state shared revenues, sales taxes, utility taxes, and other general fund revenue.
Ten years ago, Arizona changed the property tax system to base taxation on Limited Property Value (LPV), which limits annual valuation increases to no more than 5%. Subsequent legislation further limited fire district revenues by capping the property tax rate fire districts may levy and reducing the assessed valuation of commercial properties.
As a result, many fire districts did not return to their 2009–2010 property valuation levels for approximately 15 years. However, such levy limitations do not apply to property values or tax rates necessary to pay debt service on bonds, such as NWFD’s outstanding bonds and the proposed bonds.