CHENEY — Spokane County Fire District No. 3 has a property tax levy proposal alongside the fast-approaching elections. The proposed levy would restore the district to $1.50 per $1,000 of assessed value and be collected in 2022. Their current levy is $1.42 per $1,000 of assessed value.
Fire District 3 covers the 570 square miles that encompass Medical Lake, Spangle and Southwest Spokane County. They provide firefighting services, emergency medical services, wildfire fighting and technical rescue services to the almost 30,000 residents in their jurisdiction. The 8-cent rise in the levy would affect those living in the fire district’s jurisdiction.
To explain how funds from a levy are collected, Fire Chief Cody Rohrbach used an example of a $300,000 piece of land. The landowner would divide the total assessed value by $1,000, then multiply that number by the levy rate to see the total.
The Fire District ran a similar levy restoration measure in August, 2019, the same year Medical Lake residents approved being annexed into the district’s fire protection area. That restoration levy passed with 68.29% of the vote.
Normally fire district levy growth is restricted to a 1% statutory limit, unless a larger change is approved by voters. As the value of the community increased along with inflation, the fire district was unable to keep up.
“It’s the only levy we have,” Rohrbach said. “Some other departments run additional ones, but it’s our primary source of funding. We use it to maintain services and to maintain our ISO insurance rating.”
Insurance Services Office (ISO) measures a fire department’s success and compares it to their standards. The ISO scores a department on elements such as emergency communications systems, water supply, community risk reduction and the department itself. High scores can lower homeowner insurance premiums for the fire district’s community.
The money from the levy would also go to other service maintenance. “We have over 52 vehicles in the fleet, and those funds go to replacing those that are getting older,” Rohrbach said. He mentioned training as another outlet for funding.
According to the proposition appearing on the ballot, “The District’s Board of Commissioners has determined that this proposition is necessary to maintain an effective level of services, fire fighter staffing, equipment and facilities in light of rising costs. Approval of this measure will allow the district to maintain the level of fire protection and emergency medical services provided to its citizens.”
Riley Kankelberg can be reached at riley@cheneyfreepress.com.
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