Low Voter Turnout Snuffs Fire District 3 Upgrade Levy

Too few voters turned out on Tuesday to pass a $700,000 property tax levy in Fire District 3, which serves southwestern Spokane County.

Those who did show up at the polls favored the measure 2-to-1, but the measure needed about 500 more yes votes to be validated, said Fire Chief Bruce Holloway.

State law requires a minimum number of votes to approve property tax increases, and the formula is based on the turnout in the previous general election.

In ballots counted Tuesday, the measure had 711 yes votes to 381 no votes for an approval rate of 65 percent.

That’s well above the 60 percent minimum yes vote required for passage.

Holloway said district officials were heartened by the support but fell victim to a low turnout. The levy was the only measure on the ballot in the rural district that covers 565 square miles of southwest Spokane County.

“The percentage is great, but we’re 500 votes short on the yes,” Holloway said.

The district’s board of commissioners will have to decide whether to run the measure again or drop it, Holloway said.

To put it on the general election ballot this fall, the board would need to adopt a resolution in a special meeting by Friday.

The measure was a one-year excess levy on property within the district. It would have cost property owners about $1.32 per $1,000 of assessed valuation.

That means the owner of a $100,000 home would have paid $132 in extra property taxes in 1998.

Holloway said the money would have been used to get a jump-start on a plan to upgrade equipment and services to the district, which has more than 12,000 residents.

The district needs to acquire seven new attack engines, which are larger than brush trucks but smaller than full-size pumper engines.

Existing equipment is aging.

“It’s starting to kill us on maintenance,” Holloway said.

Under the proposal sent to voters, the district’s staff would have purchased used chassis and built the attack rigs in the district’s shops, saving about $50,000 per vehicle.

With the new attack rigs being purchased through the levy, the district could then have spent its annual capital budget to upgrade stations and add pumper tenders to the fire force.

Without the levy, the district won’t be able to finance all of the upgrades for at least 12 years, Holloway said.

Fire commissioners want to add emergency medical service to three of four stations that do not have it now. Currently the district has three stations with emergency medical rigs.

, DataTimes