EVERETT — The Mukilteo City Council approved a resolution Monday to place a levy lift for emergency medical services on the November ballot.
If voters approve it, the EMS levy rate would increase to 50 cents per $1,000 of assessed property values. Property owners currently pay a rate of about 27 cents per $1,000 of assessed property value. The average homeowner would pay an additional $16 per month, according to the city, and it would raise about $1.7 million for EMS services.
Citizens in Mukilteo currently pay the lowest city tax rate for fire and EMS in Snohomish County. Even if the levy lift is approved, it would still be the lowest fire and EMS tax rate county-wide.
Mukilteo last approved an EMS levy increase in 2010 at the same rate of 50 cents per $1,000 of assessed property value. But because state law limits taxing districts to 1% increases to property tax revenue annually, the rate has dropped to about 27 cents per $1,000 of assessed value.
In August 2024, voters shot down a potential levy lift to 50 cents per $1,000 of assessed property value by a margin of just over 200 votes.
Mukilteo currently uses other funds to supplement the EMS budget because the EMS levy only funds about half of the department’s annual budget. In its 2025-26 budget, the city approved the transfer of $1.93 million of American Rescue Plan Act funds to fill gaps in EMS funding in 2025 and is set to transfer about $1.9 million of general fund dollars to help pay for the services in 2026.
“We have a financial crisis of millions of dollars of shortfalls, deficits, whatever you want to call it,” council member Steve Schmalz said at Monday’s council meeting. “This will help plug some of that if it passes.”
The council voted 5-1 to place the measure on the ballot. Council member Mike Dixon voted against the measure partly because Mukilteo’s firefighters union, the International Association of Firefighters Local 3482, opposes the levy lid lift.
At work sessions, council members said the levy lid lift was necessary to reduce the need for general fund transfers into the city’s EMS fund while keeping EMS operating at its current levels. The levy could fund some equipment investments for the fire department.
But Robert Glorioso, president of Mukilteo’s firefighters union, said the department is currently operating at the “minimum standard possible,” and it needs significant investment that the levy would not provide.
“When you go to the citizens for a tax increase on something, you expect that if you’re going to make that decision to move forward on that, it would be going toward EMS,” Glorioso said in an interview Tuesday. “It’s been very clear from our elected leaders, the mayor in particular, that the intent is not to fund EMS. The intent is to supplant the general fund money.”
The city’s fire department has been struggling with understaffing for years, Glorioso said. The union supports joining the South County Regional Fire Authority instead of the levy lid lift, so citizens “can count on their funds fully going to the fire service,” he said.
In work sessions, many council members said the fire department does need additional investment and staffing. But the levy could be an immediate help to the city’s ongoing budget problems. At an April 14 work session, council member Richard Emery said the levy lid lift would not be a fix for the long-term sustainability of the fire department, but rather a “transitional opportunity,” he said, to support the department until it is able to join a regional fire authority or find another long-term solution.
“We need a plan A and a plan B,” Emery said at the work session. “I think plan A would be a levy to support our fire department as is until we have an opportunity for a plan B to help.”
Mukilteo is seeking applicants to write the pro and con statements for the voter’s pamphlet, the city announced in a release Wednesday. Applicants must live in Mukilteo and be registered to vote in Snohomish County. Applications can be submitted online at tinyurl.com/uvsfvskh and are due by 5 pm on May 21.
Will Geschke: 425-339-3443; william.geschke@heraldnet.com; X: @willgeschke.
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