Puget Sound Regional Fire Authority (Puget Sound Fire) provides fire protection and emergency medical services to the cities of Covington, Kent, SeaTac, Maple Valley, Fire District 43 and Fire District 37. This proposition will authorize Puget Sound Fire to restore its regular real property tax levy rate (currently approximately $.706 per thousand of assessed valuation) to the 2011 levy rate of $1.00 and will authorize an annual growth rate greater of 1% or the annual CPI-W for Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue as reported in June for each of the five succeeding years to allow the RFA to keep pace with inflation.

Puget Sound Fire has a two-part funding system including this property tax in combination with a benefit charge. The benefit charge is a service fee based on the square footage of your structure and the amount of resources needed to extinguish a fire.  Due to voter approved limits, property tax collections cannot exceed a 1% increase per year.  As a result of this limitation, the benefit charge portion of our funding has gradually increased.  If this measure is approved with the restoration of the property tax to $1.00 per thousand and the use of a CPI annual adjustment, the department will be able to reduce the benefit charge applied to all parcels in the fire authority based on size and use.

This rebalancing of the two-part funding system will allow the department to maintain and improve fire protection, prevention, emergency medical services and the protection of life and property in the Puget Sound Fire response area.