The South Kitsap Fire and Rescue commissioners are proposing an increase in emergency medical service tax revenue to pay for a better emergency response capability.

If at least 60 percent of those voting approve the ballot measure at the May 19 election, an EMS levy would be collected from 2010 through 2015 to supplement the fire district’s regular levy revenue and help pay for an appropriate emergency response capability.

Of course, opinions may vary about what an appropriate capability is, especially when the proposal calls for a significant increase in revenue.

The taxes we pay for EMS provide the capability to respond in most cases in time to be useful — at least, that’s what we would hope.

Since we could hardly afford to pay for enough personnel, equipment and stations to be assured of immediate responses in all cases, we cannot avoid wondering how much capability we can afford.

The typical outcome of EMS levy elections in the past has been approval of the maximum allowable tax rate and whatever revenue that rate collects. Assessed property values didn’t go up much, so the new levy rarely involved a big jump in the tax.

Even if the maximum rate didn’t provide enough to pay for the response capability we might want in a perfect world, this isn’t a perfect world.

As property values soared for a few years, the possible revenue increase from approving the maximum tax rate for the next EMS levy went up quite a bit.

The maximum rate is 50 cents per $1,000 of assessed property value, and this year’s rate is 32 cents per $1,000.

The fire district’s ballot measure would set the tax rate at the maximum for 2010 to provide revenue to implement its planned increases in response capability.

Unlike the levies for the school district, EMS levy propositions don’t put on the ballot a certain annual dollar amount to be collected each year.

Instead, voters approve the tax rate for the first year, and the rate in the ensuing five years is whatever results from the allowable annual increases in the levy amount.

Annual increases are limited to 1 percent of the prior year’s levy amount plus the amounts generated by new construction, if the higher amount can be collected without exceeding the maximum tax rate.

During the housing boom, this calculation resulted in average annual EMS levy increases of about 4 percent.

Now that the boom is over, it is likely that any increases would be less than 4 percent.

In fact, if total assessed property valuation continues to decline significantly, the levy amounts could also decline. Once we are at the maximum tax rate, drops in total assessed valuation force declines in the revenue collected.

If total assessed property valuation drops by about 10 percent for taxes due in 2010, as is likely to be the case, then approving a new EMS levy at the maximum rate would increase EMS tax revenue by about 42 percent.

This year’s EMS levy amount is about $2.4 million, and next year’s amount would be about $3.4 million.

Along with a recently approved federal grant, this additional revenue would pay for more personnel to respond from existing SKFR stations and begin to improve response capability near Manchester by staffing a station there.

Placing personnel at a station near Manchester would make the response capability better for residents of Manchester and for many people who don’t live in that area.

A unit responding to Manchester cannot respond to calls for assistance from other areas, and Manchester doesn’t have a nearby station now.

If the time needed for available units merely to drive to the location of a call for assistance is too long, the response may not be useful.

The plan is to make the response useful to more of us by reducing the driving time to Manchester and increasing the personnel who can respond to calls in other areas.

Since we are paying for a response capability that we hope is useful, the idea is to make that hope a reality in most cases.

Robert Meadows is a Port Orchard resident.