EVERETT — The cost of getting help when you dial 911 in Everett is soaring.
City leaders hope taxpayers are willing to pay more for it.
They want voters to approve a levy that would raise $2 million a year for emergency medical services by boosting property taxes. The matter is on the April 27 special election ballot.
If approved, the tax would bump the levy rate from 32 cents to 50 cents per $1,000 of assessed value. An owner of a $300,000 home would pay $150 a year — $54 more than now.
The rate, if approved, would put Everett in line with what taxpayers in five others communities in Snohomish County pay for EMS: Lynnwood, Marysville, Mountlake Terrace, Edmonds and Brier.
“In my view, this is an absolutely critical lifesaving service I feel, as mayor, obligated to provide the citizens of this community,” Everett Mayor Ray Stephanson said. “I’m hopeful citizens appreciate having what I think is a very high quality service.”
Emergency medical services is a division of the fire department with 45 employees, including paramedics and emergency medical technicians. The money pays for around-the-clock service, supplies and training.
Demand for those services and the cost of doing business are rising faster than funding can keep pace.
In 2006, the city budgeted $6.3 million for Everett Fire Department emergency medical services and the department responded to about 18,000 emergency calls.
This year, EMS is expected to respond to around 19,000 calls and plans to spend about $7.8 million.
Most of those costs bumps are from salaries and benefits, according to city records. The EMS program has three fewer employees than it did in 2006, yet the cost of paying EMS employees has swollen by $1.3 million — from $5 million in 2006 to $6.3 million this year.
The cost of living has gone up, said fire chief Murray Gordon. The program also started staffing peak hours with an extra response team and paid those workers overtime. An analysis showed that would be cheaper than hiring and paying the benefits of more staff, Gordon said.
Stephanson and other city leaders said this isn’t a tax hike, but rather the re-establishment of a tax people agreed to a decade ago.
In 2000, voters said “yes” to a perpetual levy, which allowed the city to raise taxes by as much as 6 percent a year. Just a few years later, an initiative limited tax hikes to 1 percent annually — in effect, overriding the earlier levy.
In 2005, the city began billing insurance companies for ambulance rides, which brings in about a $1.5 million a year. For awhile, that allowed the fire department to keep its head above water.
The EMS program ran out of money this year, and officials had to borrow $2 million from the city’s operating budget to pay for it.
The levy has received support from city leaders. A group pushing for the levy, Everett Medic One, lists all seven city council members, the mayor and the fire chief under endorsements.
Everett’s chief financial office, Debra Bryant, donated $150 to the group, according to the Washington State Public Disclosure Commission. The biggest contributors, donating $5,000 each, are the Everett Firefighters Local 46, North Sound Emergency Medicine, Providence Regional Medical Center Everett and the Everett Clinic.
No groups have formed to oppose the measure.
Debra Smith: 425-339-3197; dsmith@heraldnet.com.
Everett would like city taxpayers to increase how much they pay for emergency services from 32 cents to 50 cents per $1,000 assessed value of home. Here are other city fees:
Arlington: 41 cents
Bothell: 19 cents
Brier: 50 cents
Edmonds: 50 cents
Lynnwood: 50 cents
Marysville: 50 cents
Mill Creek: 18 cents
Mountlake Terrace: 50 cents
Mukilteo: 23 cents
Stanwood: 36 cents
Source: Snohomish County Assessor
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