The Puget Sound Regional Fire Authority “Puget Sound Fire” is responsible for providing fire protection and emergency medical services in your community. For the last twelve years, the Puget Sound Fire has funded these services primarily through a combination of property taxes and voter approved benefit charges.
Under state law, voters must renew the use of Puget Sound Fire’s current benefit charge in 2021. A benefit charge is not a property tax. The benefit charge is a user fee designed to allocate the cost of the services provided by Puget Sound Fire in reasonable proportion to the measurable benefit a property receives. The benefit charge is based on an industry accepted formula that takes into consideration fire flows, the square footage of structures, the type of structures and various risk factors.
The Puget Sound Fire Governance Board has determined that permanently establishing the benefit charge will provides a long-term, stable, reliable and cost effective method for financing the operations of Puget Sound Fire and for maintaining satisfactory levels of service.
Under state law, regional fire authorities which collect benefit charges have reduced taxing authority. Benefit charges can constitute no more than 60 percent of a fire authority’s annual operating budget and the fire authority’s maximum property tax rate is reduced from $1.50 to $1.00 per $1,000 of assessed valuation.
If approved, Proposition 1 would permanently continue the current funding methods utilized by the Puget Sound Fire to provide emergency medical and fire protection services.