Initiative 747 threatens services which we fund and manage in our local communities – public libraries, schools, hospitals, police and our fire districts. Initiative 747 undermines these services by limiting their year-to-year funding increases to the level of inflation or 1 percent, whichever is lower. It has been many years since inflation was as low as 1percent. If these services can’t keep pace with inflation, their quality and availability suffers.
Local fire districts do three things: put out fires, clean up hazardous spills and respond to medical emergencies. Imagine that your spouse or parent experiences severe chest pains suggesting a heart attack; your child suffers a bee sting, and a severe allergic reaction and has trouble breathing; imagine a loved one in a car accident. We depend on fire district personnel to respond to these emergencies.
If your fire district is fully occupied responding to one or two medical emergencies, and you happen to be the next person needing help, a neighboring fire district would respond to your emergency. But it will take a bit longer. In a medical emergency, the speed of response is critical. The difference between eight minutes and 15 minutes can be the difference between life and death.
Initiative 747 threatens the financial base of many of our fire districts. Everett emergency services could lose $117,000 in the first year after Initiative 747 takes effect; South County (Fire District 1) could lose $92,000. The Lake Stevens Fire District could lose $127,000; in the Clearview area the loss could be $231,000. The Snohomish Fire District stands to lose $95,000. A full-time fire fighter/emergency medical technician costs about $60,000/year in salary and benefits. When we make substantial cuts to the revenues for Fire Districts, sooner or later those cuts have to translate into loss of staff who respond to emergencies.
Under Initiative 747, fire districts can go to the voters for permission to increase spending by more than 1 percent per year. Such elections can get very expensive – from as much as $60,000 in Monroe, to as much as $80,00 in Snohomish to $500,000 in Lynnwood. We, the voters, pay that expense.
As we have learned recently, disasters both large and small happen when we least expect them. Fire districts and the emergency medical services they provide are an important way for us to respond effectively when disasters strike. Initiative 747 threatens the capacity of our fire districts to be there when we need them most. If we want to maintain the current services our fire districts provide, we need to defeat Initiative 747 this November.
Monroe
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