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Board orders El Dorado Ready initiative onto Nov. ballot, asks staff for fiscal report
Summary
The Board certified the petition for the El Dorado Ready sales-tax initiative and directed staff to return with a report on fiscal impacts, administration costs and eligible recipients before August 7, 2026 so county election deadlines can be met.
The El Dorado County Board of Supervisors on June 23 ordered the El Dorado Ready emergency preparedness, healthcare access and wildfire prevention sales-tax initiative to appear on the Nov. 3, 2026 general-election ballot and directed county staff to return with a technical report on the measure’s local fiscal impacts.
The board voted 4–0 (one member recused) after Elections staff confirmed the register of voters had certified the petition signatures. County Registrar Linda Webster said the petitions qualified for the ballot after review.
Why it matters: proponents say the citizen-led measure — which campaign organizers say drew more than 15,000 verified signatures — would create a dedicated revenue stream for local wildfire prevention, sustained funding for nonprofits that do fire-prevention work, operational support for local fire districts, and funding to help Marshall Medical Center meet state seismic requirements. Proponents told the board the measure would keep revenues in El Dorado County.
What the board asked staff to do: supervisors directed the Chief Administrative Officer and County Counsel to return no later than the July 21 meeting with a report addressing the measure’s administrative costs, any required reimbursements to state collection agents, an illustrative revenue distribution schedule beyond the first year, the kinds of nonprofit recipients that would be eligible, and an analysis of the measure’s factual findings and legal recitals. Staff and the registrar were also asked to return a short ballot question and resolution in time to meet the county’s August 7 ballot-language deadline.
Public comment: dozens of residents, healthcare leaders and fire-district representatives urged the board to place the measure on the ballot, highlighting the county’s rural hospital vulnerabilities and the difficulties local fire districts face passing parcel assessments. Maya Schneider of the El Dorado Ready coalition said, “On May 6th, we delivered over 15,000 voter signatures to the elections office to place this initiative on the ballot,” and asked the board to allow voters to decide.
What’s next: staff will prepare the required ballot language and the directed report for the board’s upcoming meetings so the registrar can meet state deadlines for the November election.
