Fire district levy doesn’t hold up

When I got my Voters’ Pamphlet for the Aug. 6 primary, I read the “Explanatory Statement” and the “Statement For” about the Fire District 4 levy. I was disappointed in finding no “Statement Against.” In the “Statement For” I read about “…losing revenues due to decreased property values.” Having just recently received my “Official Notice Of Assessed Value For Taxes Payable In: 2014” I decided to run my own figures.

Our assessed value went up 21.4 percent, so if the levy stayed at $0.35 per $1000 of assessed value the tax collected under the levy would increase by 21.4 percent. If this levy at $0.50 per $1,000 of assessed value passes, the tax collected will increase by over 73 percent. They can’t make it on only a 21.4 percent increase?

Anybody had a 73 percent increase in their income in the last year; how about the last six years (since the original levy passed); how about even the last 10 years?

Keep in mind that the district says that this levy is only about 22 percent of the total budget; so under this new levy your total tax bill for Fire District 4 will be about 4.5 times whatever your 73 percent levy increase amount is.

A dollar here and 73 percent there and pretty soon we’re talking big bucks! I don’t know about you, but our budget can’t keep taking hits like this.

Fred C. Howard

Snohomish