Residents in Arlington and five rural districts in the Stillaguamish Valley will be asked to approve an increase in the property tax levy for emergency medical services to 50 cents per $1,000 of assessed value.
The owner of a $250,000 house would pay $125 a year. The owner of the same $250,000 property currently pays a yearly levy of $97.50.
The levy, beginning in 2006, would run for six years.
The rural districts include Bryant (Snohomish County Fire Protection District 18), Silvana (District 19), Arlington Heights (District 21), Darrington (District 24) and Oso (District 25). They have shared emergency services for years and agreed to ask for the same amount in their levies.
Voters previously approved a 39-cent levy. But that revenue has not kept up with inflation, said Oliver Smith, a former Arlington city councilman who supports the levy.
Initiative 747, since 2001, has capped property tax increases to 1 percent, unless approved by voters.
“But the inflation rate went up 4 and 5 percent,” Smith said.
Fire districts get almost all their money from property taxes.
Arlington and its surrounding districts have a close relationship, despite their distant stations. Ambulance runs starting 26 miles away in Darrington often transfer to a neighboring district’s ambulance near Oso to transport a patient to Cascade Valley Hospital in Arlington.
“Then that gets the Darrington units right back in service,” Smith said.
He urged residents to approve the levy.
“I’ve watched these guys in action,” he said. “They’re good.”
Smith said he is concerned that anger among some voters about the state’s new primary system could hurt the levy. He has heard some people say they are not going to vote if they can only vote for one political party.
He emphasized the importance of filling out the nonpartisan part of the ballot, anyway, even if voters reject declaring a party preference.
Votes for nonpartisan races will still be counted if voters elect not to mark choices in the partisan races.
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