By Jessica Bernstein-Wax
The Marin Independent Journal
MARIN COUNTY, Calif. — Tuesday night was a mixed bag for Marin’s 13 paramedic tax measures, with nine poised to pass and four on the edge or falling behind the two-thirds approval needed.
Measures appeared to be failing in two areas of Marinwood and in Lucas Valley and Corte Madera.
San Rafael’s Measure I, which would boost the existing tax up to $23 annually to a maximum of $108 per residence and up to 14 cents per square foot on nonresidential structures, had apparently passed with 68 percent voter approval, based on late-night returns.
Measures J and Q in Lucas Valley — County Service Area 13 — and Marinwood seemed to have failed, garnering 65 percent and 47 percent approval respectively.
Measure K in County Service Area 19 — also in the Marinwood area — was on the edge with 66 percent approval.
“There’s an opportunity to go out and work with these communities,” San Rafael fire Battalion Chief Jim Lydon said. “It may not take that much in the County Service Area 13 to get two thirds — it sounds like we almost had it or had it. Maybe we’ve got to work a little bit harder in the Marinwood area.”
But Ron Marinoff, a former Marinwood volunteer firefighter who filed formal opposition to Measure J, said the defeats in Lucas Valley and Marinwood send “a message to San Rafael that Marinwood and County Service Area 13 are not interested in San Rafael taking over the fire department and financing the takeover through the paramedic tax.”
In the Ross Valley, where taxes would continue at the current $42.50 but could go up each year to a maximum of $51.50 in the fourth year, measures were poised to pass in Fairfax, Larkspur, Ross, San Anselmo and Sleepy Hollow and unincorporated areas.
Corte Madera’s Measure C, which would keep taxes at $60 next year and increase them $5 a year for the next three years, was shy of the necessary two-thirds with just 64 percent approval based on late-night returns.
In West Marin, Measure M had garnered 71 percent approval with 77 percent of precincts reporting.
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