Emergency medical services levies appeared to be passing in Arlington, Mukilteo, Marysville, and Snohomish County Fire District 12 Tuesday night. Each required a 60 percent supermajority to pass.
Mukilteo
Voters in Mukilteo were accepting by a slim margin a six-year, $4.6 million levy to expand paramedic service in the city from one medic to six. The levy would create a separate fund, starting at $770,000, each year for six years to hire and train six paramedics, city officials said.
Mukilteo currently pays Everett to have one paramedic stationed at Fire Station 3 around the clock, seven days a week.
The levy is a scaled-down version of a permanent measure that was defeated twice last year. This year’s version would mean an increase of $105 a year for the owner of a $300,000 home, according to the city.
The levy would create a separate pot of money that would keep the city from paying paramedic costs out of its own pocket and help prevent cuts of the type made last year, according to city officials. The Everett contract totaled $420,000 this year, officials said.
Marysville, Fire District 12
In Fire District 12 and Marysville, which contracts with the district for fire and EMS services, officials asked voters to make the levy permanent to save money by not having elections every six years and to assure continued funding for emergency medical services.
The district also asked voters to restore the levy rate to 50 cents per $1,000 of assessed valuation, which voters approved in 2000.
Over time, as property values increase, the tax rate decreases, and the district now is collecting 43 cents per $1,000. Currently, the owner of a home assessed at $200,000 pays $86 a year for the EMS levy. If the measure passes, that would increase by $14 a year. The measure would have to pass in both jurisdictions to take effect.
Arlington
Residents were asked to approve an increase in the property tax levy for emergency medical services to 50 cents per $1,000 of assessed value. The levy would last six years beginning in 2006. Voters previously approved a 39-cent levy.
Supporters said the levy was necessary because revenues had not kept up with inflation.
“We’re optimistic that it’s going to hold,” assistant city administrator Kristin Banfield said.
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