Early results show sales tax for fire service with sizable lead

Measure H appears to have gained the upper hand with voters.
photo credit: Marc Albert/KRCB
Firefighters cheered when initial results appeared

Measure H, the Sonoma county sales tax measure to improve fire departments throughout the county, appears headed for a win. That's with early results last night suggesting local voters are willing to dig deeper into their pockets for the right cause.

The mood was fairly jovial around the Healdsburg wine bar and venue Sonoma Coyote as the clock ticked closer to when polls would close and shortly thereafter, the release of initial results.

The vibe was decidedly playoff game at a sports bar---but this is Healdsburg, so there was paella and maracona almonds.

Not long after 8 p.m., with the monitor being repeatedly refreshed, the numbers popped up on the screen and a hoot went out.

Matt Tognozzi, president of local 1401, professional firefighters of Sonoma county was optimistic.

"Right now we are sitting at a little bit more than 61 percent, I'm very, very happy. Our threshold is the 50 percent plus one, I think we are solidly in the win zone. Obviously there's still some ballots to be counted, we are up to about March 1st right now, we have all the ballots that have been turned in today, but I think it's going to hold true. Two weeks from now we're going to get the final results and we are going to be successful," Tognozzi said.

That's in contrast to a 2020 failed measure, which was unable to garner a required two-thirds majority.

"I think going back to the original, Measure G, a lot of the feedback we got was with vegetation management and we didn't include that before. This time we focused heavily on vegetation management, better preparing our communities for the inevitable disaster of a wildfire occurring, that's what's helped carry this through," Tognozzi said.

Reconfiguring the measure to only need a majority may have also helped.

Steve Akre, fire chief of the Sonoma Valley Fire District, told KRCB news the margin may grow.

"Historically, the early voters tend to be the more conservative ones, so I really like where we're at right now and I'm confident that we're going to hold this."