By Pepper Fisher
Port Angeles – Clallam 2 Fire-Rescue will be placing two Propositions on the August 6 ballot this year. Proposition 1 will be for a Lid Lift of their regular levy and Proposition 2 will be for an Emergency Medical Services Levy.
Fire Chief Jake Patterson says both propositions are critical to sustain the Fire District’s current and future service levels because of rising costs.
“The reality is that when we sat down for our levy lift in 2020, we kind of looked at the next several years. So, you kind of try to project out, “Okay, if we pass a levy, it’ll probably be four to six, seven years before we have to ask for another levy lift”, but I don’t think anybody in 2020, or when the decision was made in late 2019, could have predicted the large increase in inflation and the cost of goods and services and everything that has occurred. And so, the voters in 2020 approved a levy rate of a dollar thirty six, and that levy rate has shrunk down to 96 cents per thousand of assessed value.”
These propositions will only be on the ballots of voters within Clallam 2 Fire-Rescue District, which covers the unincorporated area surrounding Port Angeles from roughly Deer Park Road on the east and Lake Sutherland to the west.
The Fire District’s primary source of funding is their regular Levy, the property tax which accounts for 83% of all the revenue the Fire District receives annually. The current rate is 96 cents per thousand dollars of assessed value. Proposition 1, will be asking for a Levy Lid lift to $1.50 per thousand.
An EMS Levy would be another property tax. The revenues from the EMS levy may only be used to provide emergency medical care or services. Patterson says Clallam 2 needs it to sustain service levels.
“Yeah, it’s hard being in a public safety environment because you have to kind of run it like a business, but it’s not a business, because there are things that you can do in a business to cut costs, increase production, increase charges, and stuff like that, that we don’t have the ability to do as a public entity. And so, when prices go up, we just have to absorb that cost into the current revenue. But we really don’t have the ability to, like a company, change productions, reduce costs, close factories. Because really, what it boils down to is, if we get to that point, that’s closing fire stations, laying off personnel. And so, those personnel aren’t there for the critical role that they in the community.”
Proposition 2 will be for the creation of a 10-Year EMS levy at a rate of $0.50 per thousand of assessed property value. It would expire at the end of 2034 unless renewed by the voters at that time.
More information is available at website, clallamfire2.org.