Fire Levy Information
General Purposes Levy – PDF
• Our General Levy accounts for 60% of funding we have for emergency services.
• The General Levy also supports our EMS program, which accounts for 68% of our calls. While we have an EMS Levy, it does not cover all the costs for that life-saving program. Increasing the General Levy is important to respond to higher calls volumes with an adequate amount of personnel, apparatus, and facilities.
• Voters approved a General Levy rate of $1.30 per $1,000 of assessed property value in 2018. The rate has dropped to $0.84 per $1,000 as of this year. The suggested amount for the ballot measure would be $1.30 which is a renewal of the previous amount.
• This is not an easy ask, but it is a necessary one. We respond to over 1,500 calls per year. Call volumes have increased 62% since our last General Levy lid lift and without a levy lid lift our district is capped at 1% revenue increase over prior year which can not keep up with the demand and cost increases to provide service.
• Revenue from the General levy lid lift would hire additional emergency personnel, added staffing allows us to have constant personnel in district and have enough staff to enter house fires for rescue. We could also begin replacing outdated and unreliable apparatus and equipment.
• Since 2018, home values have increased nearly 50 percent but the fire department budget has only been able to increase by 5% in total (1% per year) due to Washington State Law.
• Staffing would increase from 2 people at each station to 4 people at one and 3 at the other allowing for someone to always be present even when units are transporting to the hospital.
Increases to the annual Fire Department revenues over the years are as follows:
2020- $37,566
2021- $40,440
2022- $59, 232
2023- $10,292