Voters are saying “yes” to South King Fire’s Proposition 1 to add a new fire benefit charge (FBC) to fund their services.
Preliminary results after 8 p.m. Aug. 6 are showing 65.43% percent voting yes out of 16,130 total votes counted. About 87,161 King County residents in Federal Way, Des Moines, unincorporated King County, and 12 miles of Puget Sound coastline were eligible to vote on the change.
The FBC is not a tax — instead it will fund the fire department through a benefit charge that “distributes costs by placing more responsibility on structures with higher fire risk and resource needs,” according to materials from South King Fire.
The FBC will lower current property taxes and replace the current Maintenance and Operations Levy, which is set to expire at the end of 2024. These changes will save costs for most people and provide more stability for South King Fire when planning future operations, according to Chief Dave Van Valkenburg.
In addition to replacing the tax and levy, Van Valkenburg said some of the FBC’s advantages over the current fire tax include a lower charge for most people and more stability for South King Fire when planning future operations.
“As a fire district, a majority of our fire funding is based on the value of property within our jurisdiction. Every property pays their property tax, and we get a portion of that property tax,” Van Valkenburg said during the campaign for Proposition 1. “So, that mechanism is very old, and it hinders our ability to plan for the future, and anticipate growth, and anticipate challenges and be prepared before something happens, because our revenue is tied to the assessed value. So, if the property values go up, we collect a little more money. If property values go down, we collect less money.”
Official election results will be certified on Aug. 20, 2024.
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