For many of you in Placer County, you are probably unaware that there is a small fire district in the Southeastern corridor of the County. It encompasses Loomis, Granite Bay and a few other bits and pieces that fill in the map.

Some of you may not be aware that your intrepid blogger’s day job is selling insurance. I have been licensed to sell insurance in California since 8-10-1997. I have seen firsthand how bad the situation for getting Fire/Hazard Insurance has become in the North State of CA. It is so bad, in fact that in some areas of Roseville and Rocklin – “standard” carriers won’t write insurance there either. If you live anywhere in Lincoln, this is old hat. Finally in 2026, I have been able to start placing “standard” insurance in most all of those three cities, but not Granite Bay or Loomis. And the rates are double what they were 7 years ago.

This is why I am taking the time to write this post. Measure B is indeed a tax restructuring in the South Placer Fire District, I am not going to discuss that part except to say that it flattens the fire fee assessment thingy to $375 a parcel in the area. You can read more about that here.

I want to explain what that means to your fire insurance costs if Measure B fails. Several people I have talked to are still being “grandfathered” by their existing carrier like Liberty Mutual or State Farm, which are the two most common I see. Most have been dropped by their standard carrier in the last 5 years – especially those East of Barton Ave or North of Cavitt-Stallman.

The facts are that the district has shuttered two stations. The district has lost about 1/3 of their staff (I have been told it is much higher than this, but I can prove this number easily) because they can’t compete with nearby districts for pay and benefits. If Measure B fails to pass at a minimum one more station will close. But the consequences don’t stop there, ultimately South Placer Fire will be taken over by CalFire if B fails to pass or if some of the handful of opponents (there are exactly 3 I can discern at this point) get their way and turn it into a volunteer fire department, there are even further consequences.

Some stuff to know before we lay out scenarios:

Every property insurance policy is rated heavily based on “Protection Class” and “Wildfire Hazard Score”. Protection Class is standardized industry-wide and is a 1-10 scale. 1 being like downtown Sacramento where everything is within 3 blocks of a fire station with hydrants everywhere (1000 feet or less is the magic number). Protection Class 10 would be something like Drakesbad in Lassen National Park, 16 miles from Chester and no hydrant anywhere near the buildings. (I will use the term PCx with X being the 1-10 scale number)

Wildfire Hazard Score is rated by a couple different services, but the one I am going to cite is “Risk Meter” because I’ve have been using it to attempt to help people in recent months try to find insurance. It is a 1-100 scale. If you live near Sierra College Blvd in Granite Bay, you could be in the 20-30 range (most carriers stop at 9 for offering coverage), if you are near Folsom Lake, you are over 80.

The average property insurance cost I have seen in Granite Bay is $5,000 a year.

Scenario 1: Measure B fails, yet somehow SPFD is able to hold it together with some more staffing cuts and closing 1-2 more fire stations. Granite Bay is currently a PC4, based on conversations I have had with industry people it is likely Granite Bay becomes a PC5 or even a PC6. Each of these moves is 10-15% higher premium. So best case 10-15% increase which off of $5K is $500-$750 A YEAR. Given that Measure B amounts to at most $300 a year and for some it is much less of a parcel tax change, you are still ahead even in this best case scenario.

Wildcard: To those of you being grandfathered with those neat $2500-$3000 a year rates? What do you think will happen when State Farm or Liberty Mutual see the protection class bump up? Hint, your intrepid blogger has seen it in other parts of the state where carriers I represent have cancelled insurance they were grandfathering because of “adverse risk circumstances” vis-a-vis underlying issues in the area changing.

Vote Yes on B, and two things you know – one your insurance rates will not change due to the fire protection and you won’t give your carrier another excuse to drop you.

Scenario 2: Measure B fails, and CalFire takes over. Penryn and Newcastle are protection class 6. What do you think happens to Granite Bay, right next door? See above. All throughout the state when CalFire takes over local fire protection, the protection class has been downgraded because CalFire is centralized and not localized and they run with even less stations and people. PC4 vs PC6 is a 30% jump. I’d pay a few bucks to avoid that.

Now Imagine Scenario 1 or 2, causing you to be more than 5 miles from a fire station due to budget cuts or CalFire consolidation? Now you go to protection class 9! (hint: you will get dropped if being grandfathered, and your rate will easily double, as I commonly see quotes of $8-$10k on “normal” houses in PC9). PC9 is considered “Unprotected”.

Scenario 3: Measure B fails and the district becomes a volunteer fire district. Welcome to protection class 9. Some of Granite Bay are in odd areas where houses are more than 1000 feet from a hydrant. I know in recent years many areas have had hydrants run to them, but I still see one occasionally without. Those are currently PC8B, about 65% higher rate than PC4. With a volunteer fire department, those become PC10 – severely unprotected.

Insurance sucks. I can say that with authority as I have lived it for a generation. That said, to anyone that sees this blog about the Fire Tax Measure in Granite Bay, think it through… stabilizing the SPFD is the smartest thing to do, even if it means an increase in fire taxes.

There is a guaranteed outcome of Measure B failing – your home insurance will go up and for almost everyone that will be easily more than the cost of Measure B to the individual home/property owner. There is another guarantee of Measure B failing – further instability in the insurance market in the area.

If you think about it in this paradigm, voting yes on B actually makes far more sense than the knee-jerk it’s a tax vote no instinct.