With the August primaries just around the corner, Enumclaw and Black Diamond residents will soon decide how much they want to be taxed by their fire departments.
Ballots for the election should have arrived in your inbox by now, so here’s the lowdown on the only two ballot measures for local King County voters. (The Buckley Fire Department is not running a tax increase this election.)
The issues to be decided are officially known as a “levy lid lifts”.
In short, fire departments that offer both fire and medical emergency services can tax local residents up to $1.50 per $1,000 in assessed property value. However, Washington state law only allows government entities that receive property taxes to collect up to 1 percent more in tax revenue the following year — so as property values increase, the tax rate must decrease to compensate.
Both the Enumclaw Fire Department and Mountain View Fire and Rescue are asking their residents to “lift” their levy rate back up to the $1.50 maximum.
ENUMCLAW FIRE DEPARTMENT
EFD’s current levy rate sits at $1.36 per $1,000 in assessed property value.
Approving the lid lift would increase the levy rate by 14 cents.
For someone with $500,000 in assessed property value, their annual tax bill will go from $680 a year to $750, a $70 increase.
According to Chief Randy Fehr, these property taxes make up 80 percent of the fire department’s operating revenue every year.
Budgeting at the current $1.36 levy rate, the department expects to collect $5.17 million in 2023. It’s unclear at this time how much the department could potentially collect at the $1.50 rate; Fehr said King County will give EPFD an estimate on what the department can expect to collect at the full rate in August.
However, Fehr has said the increase in tax collections will provide the department with enough revenue to hire three new firefighters/emergency medical technicians. This would increase the daily staffing at the department from four responders to five, allowing for greater mobility and flexibility when it comes to responding to various emergencies.
Fehr has said this is important because of the rising number and rate of call volumes in EFD’s district.
EFD saw a total of 1,877 calls in 2011; total call volumes rose to 2,613 in 2021, or about a 39 percent increase. As the Plateau population continues to grow – Enumclaw’s population has grown 25 percent since the 2010 census not counting the surrounding unincorporated King County area) – Fehr expects call numbers to continue increasing.
The vast majority of all calls are for medical emergencies; department data shows around 75 percent of all emergency calls are for EMS. Fire calls, on the other hand, tend to hover between 2.5 and 3.5 percent of all calls.
“We’re drowning in calls at the moment. It’s only going to get worse due to the economy, and our people are tired. (It’s difficult to find personnel to work overtime at this point)” Fehr wrote in a recent email interview. “Three more firefighters would guarantee both a medical aid unit and a fire engine in service 24 hours a day. At present, a fire engine must be taken out of service when multiple emergency calls occur, which is 20 percent of the time and climbing.”
Additionally, hiring more first responders would also help save the department money by decreasing the amount of overtime firefighters and EMTs had to work.
According to Fehr, EFD had to pay $200,000 in overtime in 2021, mostly due to first responders calling out sick. The average Enumclaw firefighter had to work 157 hours of overtime that year, EFD Office Manager Ashley Winter said, adding that an average of 22 hours of those were mandatory.
Finally, approving this levy would increase the upper limit of revenue the department can collect in following years to six percent, as opposed to the one percent allowable through state law.
MOUNTAIN VIEW FIRE AND RESCUE
To the north, across the Green River, Mountain View Fire and Rescue is also running a levy lid lift for the residents of Black Diamond, as well as parts of Auburn, Kent, Covington, and unincorporated King County, to vote on.
Mountain View’s current levy rate stands at $1.31, and the department is asking voters to raise it to the full $1.50.
The 19 cent increase, if approved by voters, would raise the tax bill of someone with a $500,000 home from about $655 to $750, a $95 increase.
Doing so is expected to increase the department’s revenue collection from about $5.75 million (at the $1.31 levy rate) to roughly $6.585 million (at the $1.50 levy rate).
Like EFD, Mountain View is facing increasing call volumes, and additional staffing is necessary to keep up, said Chief Greg Smith.
“Call volumes and inflationary costs are outpacing the property tax revenue we have to maintain essential emergency service levels and operational effectiveness. Demand for emergency services in our district increases steadily every year,” he wrote in an email interview. “While levy rates have decreased, call volumes have increased… Additional operational funding and staffing are needed to be able to meet those demands at the level we currently provide.”
According to department stats, Mountain View saw 2080 calls in 2018, the vast majority of which (1487) being EMS calls.
The department experienced 2,483 calls last year, a 19 percent increase overall; EMS calls, standing at 1,658 in 2021, increased 12 percent.
The department is already planning on hiring five new firefighter in August, and “may hire two more this fall if the levy passes,” Smith said. “We hope to increase our daily staffing, we currently have a minimum staffing of 6 career personnel on each day 24 hours, but mostly this will allow us to continue the same level of service.”
