If Angelenos approve Measure FD on November’s ballot, it would increase the local sales tax by half a cent, from 10.25% to 10.75%, and raise approximately $345 million annually for the Los Angeles Fire Department. The money would support building and maintaining fire stations and increasing staffing and equipment, according to the city.
LAFD has more than 3,200 uniformed personnel and hundreds of professional support staff who respond to medical emergencies, traffic accidents and fires across the city’s 106 stations.
Yet after the devastating fires of recent years, including the concurrent Eaton and Palisades fires of 2025, Los Angeles residents have expressed the need for better emergency support. A 2024 analysis from the International Association of Fire Fighters, one of Measure FD’s supporters, found that the department requires 62 new stations and an additional 4,000 firefighters to meet residents’ needs.
Supporters — including the Los Angeles City Firefighters, the LAFD Chief Officers Association and the California Professional Firefighters — say they’d feel safer if firefighters had the resources they need to fight wildfires and other disasters.
They say the money would fund hiring additional firefighters and paramedics, reduce 911 emergency response times and expand brush clearance and wildfire prevention. It would also allow the fire department to upgrade stations, provide protective equipment such as fire-resistant clothing and radios, and modernize its 911 communications technology.
Supporters argue that preventing wildfires costs a lot less than recovering from them, citing the $95 to $164 billion in estimated property and capital losses from the 2025 Palisades and Eaton fires. Fires also lead to more emergency room visits for respiratory and heart issues due to heavy smoke, which can also cost taxpayers.
Opponents include the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, which, on its website, called for the City Council and mayor to “fully fund the fire department from the existing [city] budget of approximately $15 billion without a tax increase.” It also noted that Measure ER, approved by voters in June to fund healthcare and other services, raised sales tax in Los Angeles from 9.75% to 10.25% on Oct. 1.
Some LA residents say this is the wrong time to raise taxes due to high gas prices and the rising cost of consumer goods.
“Obviously, the firefighters need help to stop the fires… but also the economy is bad,” said Eileen Leiva, a pre-nursing major who said she’s struggling with the cost of tuition, textbooks, gas and food. “Everything is rising and rising every year. They get enough money as it is.”
Her planned vote? “I think, ‘No.’”
This story was produced in collaboration with Cal State LA’s UT Community News.
