What do you mean --
“levy lid lift”?
The Shoreline Fire Department receives
96% of its operating funds from a levy on property taxes. Right now, a Shoreline property owner pays
$1.33 for every $1,000 of assessed value, which amounts to about $266.00 per
year on a $200,000 home. In 2001, in a
statewide initiative, voters decided to limit (or, put a lid on) how much a
property tax levy can grow each year. Voters
set that growth limit at one percent – unless they are asked to
approve more. The Shoreline Fire
Department is asking voters to “lift the levy limitation” or “lift the lid” –
because one percent growth doesn’t provide adequate funds to maintain current
levels of fire and emergency medical protection in Shoreline. If the voters approve, the levy assessed on
a $200,000 home in 2003 would increase about $34.00 a year.
Is the Fire Department
spending more money than it has in other years?
The
Fire Department budget has grown about 5% each year for the last eight years.
Now, with I-747 and its 1% levy growth limit, there just isn’t enough
revenue to cover basic costs of service and personnel. We have projected what the continuing limit
on the levy will do to our revenues each year.
In 2002, we are coping with a loss of $300,000 in revenue. We will see a similar shortfall in 2003, and
we will be as much as $750,000 short in 2004.
By 2005, the budget shortfall could top one million dollars. That level of loss cannot be absorbed with
anything other than major cuts in personnel and fire and emergency medical
services.
What about those new buildings? It seems like the Department is doing quite well financially.
The
money to build new facilities came from a bond issue passed by Shoreline voters
in 1997. Voters approved the idea of building new facilities that will take the
Department well into the future. This year, a property owner is paying about
24-cents per thousand dollars of assessed value ($48.00 a year on a $200,000
home) for the bond that built the new fire stations and the Training and
Support Facility.
The capital budget
for facilities is separate from operating funds that pay fire department
employees’ salaries and benefits.
Eight-seven (87%) percent of the property tax revenues raised for
operating expenses in the Fire Department goes to salaries and benefits. So—the levy limitation and its corresponding
budget shortfalls directly affect our ability to provide fire and emergency
medical services in Shoreline.
What about the Medic One levy? I just voted in favor of that! Isn’t that for emergency medical services in Shoreline?
Yes, it is. However, the King
County Medic One levy is collected by King County and funds regional advanced
life support (paramedic) services, provides some rebates to local fire
departments for basic life support services, and provides for regional
management of emergency medical services by King County. Shoreline currently has a contract with King
County to provide paramedic service to Shoreline, Lake Forest Park and Kenmore. This funding helps
with that portion of what we do. It
does not pay for firefighters, emergency medical technicians or any of the
equipment, supplies, and programs we provide – except advanced life support
provided by paramedics.
All government agencies are expected to cut back to cope with taxpayer’s demands. What is the Fire Department doing to reduce costs and improve efficiency?
We are looking at every
aspect of what we do. The Fire
Department operates with less support staff than most government agencies of
similar size, with an administrative overhead of about 10%. We are purchasing essential equipment only. We are limiting travel and training expenses
when possible. The new facilities are
more energy efficient than the older facilities they replaced. The budget projections we’ve made allow for
no new spending, and no new programs or personnel. We need the levy limitation lifted to maintain current levels
of service.
What happens if voters
don’t allow the lid lift for fire protection?
We would have to
immediately reduce overtime and impose a hiring freeze. Those two steps would impact our ability to
respond at the same level provided today.
We would have to consider cutting our fire and life safety prevention
and education programs that benefit children and senior citizens in our
community. By the year 2005, we could
face lay-offs and substantial cuts in services.