I am a Kent resident of two years and a former resident of Covington for more than 30 years who has been actively involved in the community. I feel that I have a good knowledge and understanding of how the Kent Fire Department, now the Puget Sound Regional Fire Authority (PSRFA), operates.<\/p>\n
It saddens me to hear comments and read articles of false statements and half-truths. The PSRFA has exhibited great integrity by serving the community and being good stewards of taxpayer dollars.<\/p>\n
Yes, Prop 1 raises taxes beginning next year, but opponents fail to note that the fire benefit charge will be reduced by a similar amount that basically results in a financial “push.” The “cap’ on the fire benefit charge, by state law, can never be raised above the 60 percent of the capital budget.<\/p>\n
Another false truth appears in the statement that the PSRFA taxes our land and driveways, when in reality they only charge a fee on our homes. The fee charged is solely based on the size of the home and the resources needed to extinguish the fire.<\/p>\n
There are many examples of “vote no” citizen comments that are inaccurate, but one in particular has my attention: the $114 a day paid to RFA board members whether they work one minute or one hour. This is true, however, but what is failed to be noted is that seldom does a board member perform duties lasting less than an hour. There are many instances when a board member works many hours at a time, up to and including eight hours at one time, and this may include weekends. Some board members do not record small amounts of time worked while others donate a portion of their earnings to charity.<\/p>\n
And, last but most important all, actions and expenditures are in strict accordance with state law.<\/p>\n
Please, vote yes on Prop 1.<\/p>\n
– Mike Denbo <\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I am a Kent resident of two years and a former resident of Covington for more than 30 years who has been actively involved in the community. I feel that I have a good knowledge and understanding of how the Kent Fire Department, now the Puget Sound Regional Fire Authority (PSRFA), operates.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":106,"featured_media":34148,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34147"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/106"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34147"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34147\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34148"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34147"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34147"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34147"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=34147"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}