Thank you
Our annual Sept. 11 Breakfast was a grand success, raising more than $700 to support the work of Kitsap Mental Health Services. We’re grateful to the nearly 100 people who attended and gave generously. And we thank Suquamish Clearwater Casino Resort as well as our own personnel for providing the food for the event.
NKF&R requests more funding for services
With the vast majority of its funding coming from property taxes, NKF&R’s budget continues to suffer from the impacts of years of declining property values.
Levy rates have been at their caps for several years and, as a result, the district’s tax revenues have dropped as property values fell. In 2014 alone NKF&R’s revenue budget is almost $600,000 less than it was in 2009. The district has worked hard to adapt: positions have been left vacant, wages have been frozen, capital purchases have been deferred, cooperative efforts with other agencies intensified, discretionary spending held to a minimum and more. During the same time, costs beyond the district’s control continued to rise.
Other local fire departments have reduced their minimum staffing levels to save overtime costs and deal with similar revenue shortfalls, but NKF&R has already set the minimums at the lowest level possible for staffing four fire stations. With 86 percent of the district’s budget committed to personnel costs, any additional reductions to station staffing would significantly impact levels of service.
NKF&R is proposing a temporary maintenance and operations levy of $600,000 per year, for four years. If approved, the special levy would cost taxpayers an estimated additional $0.25 per thousand dollars of assessed valuation and preserve the district’s current levels of service.
Total valuation vs. individual valuation
NKF&R’s levy rates and tax revenues are calculated on the district’s total assessed valuation. When we say that the district’s assessed valuation is down 25 percent from five years ago, we are talking about the total. Some individual properties may have lost more than 25 percent in value, others less.
Some individual properties may have even recovered their value to 2009 levels. Others have not.
Regardless, the overall valuation of the district is one-quarter less than it was in 2009. Even as the total assessed valuation begins to rebound, statutory levy lids and legal limits on annual increases prevent the district from recovering the compounded losses without voter-approval of additional funding.
Learn more about the ballot measure
NKF&R is holding a series of BBQ/Open Houses at its stations:
Sept. 27 from 2–6 p.m. at Station 84 (18533 Augusta Ave. NE, Suquamish); Oct. 8 at Station 85 (23260 S. Kingston Road between Kingston and Indianola); Oct. 11 from 2–6 p.m. at Station 81/Headquarters (26642 Miller Bay Road NE near Kingston). In addition to food and information, there will also be activities for children.
Anyone unable to attend the event can also learn more about the issues by e-mailing or calling Fire Chief Dan Smith (smith@nkfr.org or 360-297-3619).
Correction
In last month’s column, we stated the district’s total assessed valuation had dropped by nearly 30 percent since 2009. The actual drop in total assessed valuation was actually about 25 percent.
Although these figures don’t change the size of the resulting revenue problems (see above), the math error was brought to our attention and we feel it’s important to share the correction with our readers.
