Self-contained breathing apparatus for firefighters, jaws of life, firetrucks and tankers are among the emergency equipment Santa Fe County would buy with revenue from a proposed new tax.

Voters who live in unincorporated areas of Santa Fe County are eligible to cast ballots on whether to impose a quarter-cent hike in the gross-receipts tax rate on business activity in those areas to benefit the county Fire Department.

They have another week to cast early ballots. Although early voting ends Friday at the County Administration Building in downtown Santa Fe, voters still can cast a ballot in person on election day, Nov. 17, at various polling places. (See list.)

"I just don't think a lot of people know this is going on because it's a special election," said county Elections Bureau Director Denise Lamb, who reported only 30 people had cast early ballots as of Friday.

The sole ballot question is the Fire Protection Excise Tax, which fire Chief Stan Holden says is necessary to continue emergency medical and fire protection services for the rural regions of the county. Holden said the county is eight years behind schedule in replacing equipment. The revenue is also needed to build new fire stations in Rancho Viejo and Glorieta, and living-quarters additions to existing buildings in Pojoaque and La Tierra.

"We hope the voters say yes," Holden said, "But we have been told that (as county officials) we can do nothing to promote the election."

A total of 37,803 registered voters live outside the city limits of Santa Fe, Española and Edgewood and are eligible to vote in the election.

The county hired about 110 poll workers to staff its 26 consolidated polling places, which include elementary schools and fire stations. Their pay, combined with ballot printing and machine programming costs, bring the election's estimated cost to about $30,000, Lamb said.

The proposed gross-receipts levy will generate about $2.2 million a year, according to estimates provided by the county in September. The funds collected in the unincorporated parts of the county could only be used to build fire stations or buy firefighting equipment.

An excise tax for fire protection had been collected in the area for 15 years before the county deliberately allowed it to expire in 2006, when a new countywide tax measure went into effect.

Holden said the tax is needed now in the unincorporated areas because more of the other tax revenue is being spent on a regional emergency dispatch center than he originally budgeted.

The quarter-cent tax would add 25 cents on a $100 taxable transaction and would take effect July 1, 2010, with no expiration date.

Lt. Dewey Holliday, president of the county's local firefighters union, said the union supports the tax initiative but has not spent time promoting it because it has been focused on difficult contract negotiations over the last 18 months.

"I do support the tax," he said Friday. "I feel like, though, there needs to be firm transparency as to how that tax will be used."

Contact Julie Ann Grimm at 986-3017 or jgrimm@sfnewmexican.com.

SPECIAL ELECTION POLLS

The following polling places will be open on Nov. 17 for residents of precincts in unincorporated areas of Santa Fe County to decide whether to increase their gross-receipts tax rate to help fund fire protection:

Agua Fría Community Center: 31, 66, 67, 80
Benny J. Chavez Center: 3, 4
Capshaw Middle School: 37, 54, 81
Edgewood Elementary: 18, 73, 84, 85
El Rancho Community Center: 5
Eldorado Elementary: 63, 65, 69, 71
Elk's BPOE 460 Lodge: 48, 55
Fort Marcy Complex: 9, 10
Galisteo Community Center: 17
Glorieta Fire Station: 57
Gonzales Elementary: 11
Hondo Fire Station No. 2: 13, 68
La Cienega Community Center: 12, 62
Nambé Head Start: 23, 61, 87
Pojoaque Middle School: 59, 60
San Ildefonso Pueblo: 40
Santa Fe County Fair Building: 29, 38, 56, 78
Sombrillo Elementary: 1, 2, 79
South Mountain Elementary: 15,16
St. Joseph's Parish Hall: 72
Stanley Community Center: 19
Sweeney Elementary: 64, 75, 86
Tesuque Elementary: 7, 8
Tesuque Pueblo Intergenerational Center: 6
Turquoise Trail Elementary: 14, 70
Unity Church of Santa Fe: 82, 83

Early voting continues this week during business hours at the County Clerk's Office, 102 Grant Ave. For more information, contact the Santa Fe County Clerk at 986-6280.