PORT ANGELES — Clallam County Fire District 2 will bring its levy lid lift proposition back to voters in November after it failed on the Aug. 6 primary ballot.
The district will not bring its proposed EMS levy back to voters within the next year.
Fire chief Jake Patterson said that, although both levies were critical, “perhaps voters weren’t comfortable voting on two levies at the same time.”
“At this point, we just need to get the fire levy passed so it doesn’t impact our current levels of service, let alone future levels,” Patterson said.
The levy lid lift — or fire levy — aims to increase the current rate of 96 cents per $1,000 of assessed property value to $1.50 per $1,000.
The 54-cent increase would cost the owner of a home valued at $300,000 an additional $162 in taxes per year.
Without the levy lid lift, Patterson said the district would only be able to provide its current service levels for a limited time.
If the proposition doesn’t pass in November, Patterson said there will be additional belt tightening, delay of equipment and other necessities and eventually staff layoffs.
On the August ballot, the proposition received a 47.27 percent yes vote. It required a simple majority to pass.
To increase the number of yes votes, a press release said the fire district plans to continue its education campaign and “explain why this levy lid lift is vital to our operations.”
Patterson said the campaign will combat confusion about where the fire district gets funding.
“We thought we were doing pretty good messaging with the information and trying to get it out there,” Patterson said. “But it still sounds like there’s confusion about the fire district as its own separate entity and not affiliated with the county government, the hospital or the city.”
Although the fire district will drop the EMS levy from the ballot for the foreseeable future, Patterson said he hopes to bring it back eventually. Unless the EMS levy is passed, Patterson said the district cannot hire more staff to meet the increasing call volume.
The EMS levy would have implemented a property tax of 50 cents per $1,000 of assessed value for a 10-year period. The proposition received a 52.48 percent yes vote in the primary. It needed a supermajority of 60 percent approval to pass.
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Reporter Emma Maple can be reached by email at emma.maple@peninsuladailynews.com.
