An Emergency Services District (“ESD”) is an independent local government created by voters through an election in an area to provide fire protection, emergency medical services, or both. More than 300 districts are operating in Texas, protecting over 8 million Texans, and more are added at almost every uniform election date.

TCESD No. 17 is the government entity that collects property taxes to provide funding for emergency medical services, or EMS, response to the residents within the TCESD No. 17 boundaries, which include the Wells Branch Municipal Utility District, Northtown Municipal Utility District, and other areas in unincorporated Travis County.  TCESD No.17 provides funding for these services which are provided by TCESD No. 2 (also known as the Pflugerville Fire Department).  The current TCESD No. 17 service area is shown below:

TCESD No. 17 provides advanced life support EMS (ALS) and ambulance transport services, which TCESD No. 2 has stated it can no longer afford to provide. TCESD No. 2 was initially created to provide funding for fire suppression services and first response EMS, however, the TCESD No. 2 began providing ALS and ambulance transport services as part of its services in 2017 out of its budget to meet the demands of a continuously growing community that was experiencing longer ambulance response times from Austin-Travis County EMS. Prior to 2017, TCESD No. 2 personnel, as EMS first responders, had to wait alongside patients for ambulances to arrive with the equipment and personnel to provide ALS and ambulance transport.  After revenue growth limits were enacted in 2019 by the passage of the Texas Property Tax Reform and Transparency Act, TCESD No. 2 identified a funding shortfall. TCESD No. 2’s 2020 long-term strategic planning underscored the need for a supplemental funding for ALS and ambulance transport services within the TCESD No. 2 boundaries. One of the identified solutions was the creation of a separate EMS overlay ESD, which is the newly formed TCESD No. 17.

4000+ residents signed and submitted a petition to Travis County Commissioners Court; the Commissioners Court approved the petition, and a ballot measure was placed on the May 2021 ballot to create for the TCESD No. 17.  TCESD No. 17’s primary purpose is to fund ALS (advanced life support) and ambulance transport services. Voters in the Wells Branch and Northtown areas approved the creation of TCESD No. 17 by a 3 to 1 margin.

Residents of Pflugerville and its ETJ were prevented from participating in the election to create TCESD No. 17 because the City Councilmembers of Pflugerville denied consent to inclusion of those areas in TCESD No. 17 in a 6-1 vote despite the City’s staff’s recommendation to consent. Because of the City’s action, the source of future funding and service for ALS and ambulance transport in these areas remains in question.

Under Texas statutes, TCESD No. 17 can expand the area it serves through voter-initiated petition for addition of territory.

Resident voters and property owners of an area that desire service from the ESD submit a petition add their area to the ESD. TCESD No. 17’s Board of Commissioners received such two petitions on July 12, 2021.  The Board considered the petitions in a public hearing on August 16, 2021 and voted to approve the petitions and submit the ballot measures regarding addition of the territory to the voters, who can decide to vote for or against the addition of the proposed areas.

When a the voters approve the addition of an area, the area is added to the ESD and the property owners within that area begin paying property taxes to the District to fund the services that they will receive.

Two separate and distinct elections will be held on November 2^nd for each of these areas. For the City of Pflugerville to be added to and receive ALS and ambulance transport services from TCESD No. 17, the voters in the city must vote in favor of being added to TCESD No. 17, and the voters within the current TCESD No. 17 must vote in favor of adding the City.

For the addition of the ETJs of Pflugerville, Hutto and Round Rock to added to and receive ALS and ambulance transport services from TCESD No. 17, the voters in these combined ETJs must vote in favor of adding the combined ETJ areas, and the voters within the current TCESD No. 17 must vote in favor of adding the combined ETJ areas.

Although TCESD No. 17 is authorized by state law and the voters to collect up to $0.10 per $100 of property valuation, the Board of Commissioners adopted a tax rate of $0.045/$100 tax rate at its September 14, 2021, board meeting. The TCESD No. 17 Commissioners received updated economic forecasts from financial advisors and TCESD No. 2 staff at an Annual Strategic Planning Conference in July 2021.  Those forecasts showed the need to collect $0.045 per $100 of property valuation to provide ALS and ambulance service.  A property owner with a home taxable value of $300,000 will pay approximately $11.25 per month or $135 annually to TCESD No. 17 for ALS and ambulance transport services.

Revenue from TCESD No. 17 provides funding for ALS and ambulance transport services within the ESD. These costs include paramedics and other EMS personnel, on-going professional training, ambulances, medical equipment, facilities, community outreach and education, administration, and other support services. The services are provided by TCESD No. 2.   The addition of the proposed areas and subsequent additional revenue would allow TCESD No. 17 to fund ALS and ambulance transport services within the City of Pflugerville and its ETJ, and the ETJs of Round Rock and Hutto.

If voters do not approve the addition of these areas, the Board will continue to provide the ALS and ambulance transport services the current residents of TCESD No. 17. The residents of the City of Pflugerville, its ETJ and the ETJs of Round Rock and Hutto would need to look to other government entities to fund and potentially provide those services. Prior to the TCESD No. 17 election being called, the Board of Commissioners of TCESD No. 2 offered to enter into separate interlocal agreements with the City of Pflugerville and Travis County to continue ALS and ambulance transport services for citizens of Pflugerville and residents of the three ETJ areas in unincorporated Travis County. While this option remains available, the leadership of the City of Pflugerville has never responded to the proposal and Travis County has not approved an agreement.

• Option 1 – Do nothing. This option does not address the identified funding shortfall. Beginning January 2022, funding for EMS for the City of Pflugerville and its ETJ will no longer be provided by TCESD No. 2, and TCESD No.17 will only provide ALS and ambulance transport services to the area within TCESD No. 17 where residents voted to create the new ESD. The City of Pflugerville and/or Travis County would need to provide these services at their own cost within the city and the three ETJ areas.
• Option 2 – Establishment of an agreement between TCESD No. 17 or TCESD No. 2, and the City of Pflugerville and Travis County to provide at least $3 million in initial supplemental funding annually to sufficiently maintain current levels of advanced life support and EMS transport service provided by TCESD No. 2.  Approximately $2 million would be needed from the City and less than $1 million would be needed from Travis County.

The City of Pflugerville, without its Councilmembers previously voting in open meeting to authorize any legal action against TCESD No. 17, filed a lawsuit late in the day on August 11th seeking to prevent TCESD No. 17 from holding the elections to allow voters to decide on whether to add areas to the ESD boundaries. On Thursday, August 12th, Travis County District Court Judge Jan Soifer denied the city’s request for a temporary restraining order against TCESD No. 17. The city also files writs of mandamus in both the 3^rd Court of Appeals and the Texas Supreme Court to attempt to have the elections removed from the November ballots.  Both the 3^rd Court of Appeal and the Texas Supreme Court denied the City’s writs.  The City’s efforts in court to stop TCESD No. 17 from allowing the voters to decide how their emergency medical services will be funded were dismissed in their entirety when Judge Jessica Mangrum indicated she was granting TCESD No. 17’s Plea to the Jurisdiction on September 13^th. Currently, the ballot measures to add the two areas will be on the November 2, 2021, ballot.

On September 29^th, the City of Pflugerville came out of executive session and again unanimously authorized legal action to appeal the court’s decision and to prevent voter input on the issue using taxpayer funds.

Two separate and distinct elections will be held on November 2nd, one for the addition of the City of Pflugerville (designated in brown on the map below) and one for the addition of the ETJs of Pflugerville, Hutto, and Round Rock (designated in gray on the map below) into TCESD No. 17 (designated in green on the map below).

The ballot language is mandated by statute and is specified in the Texas Health and Safety Code 775.051.  Even though ESD 17 has no outstanding debts and taxes as specified in the statue, the language must be included.

1. With new companies moving to Pflugerville regularly, our community is growing, and the need for advanced life support EMS and ambulance services is growing, too.
2. Because it would be impossible for ESD 2 to continue serving our growing community at our current funding level, ESD 17 was proposed. With it, residents would enjoy the same fast, high-level, affordable EMS and advanced life support services you have come to expect.
3. If voters in Pflugerville and the city’s ETJ do not approve ESD 17 for our community, the city will be responsible for advanced life support EMS and ambulance services. While we do not know exactly what that will look like, because the City has never provided these services, the City’s current proposal includes outsourcing these services to a private, for profit, company, such as American Medical Response (AMR) or Acadian.

Yes. Thanks in large part to the leadership of the Pflugerville Community Development Corporation (PCDC), our community has recruited a number of businesses to relocate to our community. Most recently, we saw news of Amazon hiring 1,000 employees for its Pflugerville facility and MDC Vacuum Products building a local factory. This translates to population growth in Pflugerville and in the city’s ETJ. This creates greater demand for emergency services.

It makes sense that our community would invest in infrastructure to support this growth, such as the $4.38 million construction contract for intersection improvements at Pecan Street and FM 685 that the Pflugerville City Council approved in March of this year.

It also makes sense that needs for emergency services, including EMS, would increase with these changes.