Mountain View Fire and Rescue provides essential fire, medical, and emergency services for our community. The District’s operating costs continue to rise due to increasing service demands and inflationary costs that are outpacing the property tax revenue to maintain essential emergency service levels and operational effectiveness.
The District is asking voters to restore their fire levy rate to the previously approved $1.50 per $1,000 of assessed property value. The current fire levy rate has fallen to $1.31 per $1,000 of assessed property value.
This is not a new tax. This simply allows the District to restore funding to the previously approved level. This amounts to $102 per year or $8.50 per month for the average home.
Washington State limits fire district tax revenue increases to 1% per year regardless of the increased property’s assessed value. This means if a home increases 12% in assessed value, the District can still only collect 1% more overall than the previous year. We are challenged to meet the growing demand to maintain essential service levels and response times.
MVFR funds daily operations and most capital replacement needs through a regular operating levy. The fire levy pays for staffing, repairing and replacing equipment and ever-increasing operating expenses to provide fire suppression, emergency medical and other essential services to District citizens. With your yes vote, the District will have a more sustainable funding source to provide vital services.
Our firefighters have always been there for us, and now we have the opportunity to support their work in our community. We encourage and ask for your yes vote on this levy lid lift.
Submitted by: Linda Cowan, Dustin Trout, Jim Rottle, cowanls@comcast.net
