Valley Fire Levy Request Hinges On Absentee Votes

Spokane Valley Fire District may have to make another plea to voters to get its $6.325 million operations levy passed.

The 59.2 percent approval rate the levy won during Tuesday’s primary election falls just short of passing. To be successful, the levy request must be OK’d by 60 percent of voters.

That left the fate of the levy with absentee voters.

Absentee ballots continued to trickle in Friday, but election officials were not certain the 1,900 they expected to receive would push the approval rate over the top.

To be sure they would have another chance at passing the levy if it wasn’t approved in the primary, fire officials applied to put it on the November ballot. The deadline was Friday.

A final tally of the primary votes will not be known until next Friday when the election results are certified.

If absentee voters give fire officials the boost they are hoping for, “then we can pull it off the (November) ballot,” said Valley Fire Chief Pat Humphries.

A February special election date did give fire officials another option. However, if fire officials chose to wait for the special election, they would have run the risk of a small voter-turnout not validating the election.

“I don’t think we could validate with the voter apathy in the spring,” Humphries said.

The reluctance of voters to approve the levy in the primary surprised Valley Fire officials.

In February, the district’s 1997 levy request of $5.7 million passed with ease, pulling in 78 percent of the votes. On Tuesday, the 1998 request failed to win even a simple majority in four precincts.

While the total levy amount rose slightly over the 1997 request, the amount per thousand has remained constant for the past several years. That amount is $1.49 per $1,000 of assessed property value, or $149 on a $100,000 home.

“We think that our amount’s not wrong,” Humphries said.

Fire officials also decided to simplify the wording on the November ballot. The long, complex explanation on Tuesday’s ballot may have confused voters, officials said.

Assistant Chief Karl Bold said he received several calls from voters who did not understand the request was a continuation of the current tax, and not a request for extra money.

The levy money represents 56.25 percent of Valley Fire’s 1998 operating budget, which is projected to top $11 million, Bold said.

Included among budgeted 1998 expenditures is purchasing a new fire truck equipped with a 100-foot mechanical ladder. Fire officials expect the new truck will cost the district about $480,000.

The ladder truck currently being used was purchased in 1972 and has 94,000 miles on it. The truck, which is operated out of Station No. 1, 10319 E. Sprague, is slated to be used as a reserve truck after a new one is purchased.

Valley fire officials also are considering buying a fire truck specially equipped to fight wildfires.

The remainder of the levy money will be used for general maintenance and operation of the district.

“Without it, I don’t know what would happen to this department,” Bold said.

, DataTimes