SAN DIEGO -- A regional committee of elected officials and fire chiefs on Friday approved a plan to levy a $52 parcel tax throughout the county to raise about $50 million a year to help pay for fire resources.

The proposal is scheduled to go before the county Board of Supervisors on Tuesday, which must approve it by Aug. 8 to qualify for the November ballot. The tax increase would be for 30 years and must be approved by a two-thirds majority of county voters.

Under the proposal, each parcel in the county would be taxed at least $52 a year. Parcels with larger buildings, such as high-rises, would be taxed an additional 1 cent for each square foot of space beyond 10,000 square feet.

The Regional Fire Protection Committee, formed after the 2007 wildfires to study a countywide fire safety plan, also approved and forwarded to the Board of Supervisors its final report.

Committee member Dianne Jacob cast the lone dissenting vote against the tax plan, which she said did not include enough representation of fire districts.

"I think we have a proposition before us that is doomed for failure," Jacob said.

The plan approved by the committee would establish a 21-member agency composed of one representative from each of the 18 cities in the region and one county representative. Two other members from the north and south ends of the region would represent the 19 fire and water districts responsible for fire protection.

The committee also voted to change the proposed name of the governing board responsible for allocating the tax revenue to the San Diego Regional Fire Protection Agency. County Supervisor Ron Roberts, who chairs the committee with San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders, said the name would sound friendlier than its previous name, the San Diego Regional Fire Protection Joint Powers Authority.

While discussing the funding plan at Friday's meeting, Jacob asked staff members for more specifics and questioned whether there would be enough money for a regional communication system.

Other committee members argued that such details should be left for the regional agency that will oversee the funds. Poway Mayor Mickey Cafagna said he did not think the committee should "lockbox" any funds for specific uses yet, but instead should focus on bringing the proposal before voters.

"There's no downside to this," he said. "If we make it, we make it. If we don't, we come back in 2010. But we've got to do something about fire. I don't think the details are important."

The funding plan discussed by the committee showed $50 million in revenue equally divided between regional and local purposes. In fiscal year 2009-10, regional expenditures would include about $14.7 million for firefighting equipment and $6.3 million to lease aerial firefighters.

"I think the public wants to know that we're going to have aerial firefighting equipment," Roberts said. "Right now, we don't have any money to do any of this. This is a huge, huge step."

Contact staff writer Gary Warth at (760) 740-5410 or gwarth@nctimes.com.