Pacific Northwest

[Bryce]

Right. Most people have no idea how the system works, so you have cranks that get all pissed off at fire districts for asking for more $. People think because a fire district has the county's name in it, it is part of county government. They're completely separate entities. This causes all sorts of problems when enterprising anti-tax types try to restrict property taxes. Fire districts usually get hammered worse than any other entity, even though everybody says that "waste" is what should be cut, since their sole source of funding is property taxes. Fire districts get no $ from counties, except in counties that have a countywide EMS levy.



I guess that's the other thing to mention. Fire districts can run a separate EMS levy of up to $.50 per $1000 assessed valuation. This can cause a patchwork quilt of EMS service levels. Some counties, like King County (where Seattle is), have opted to do a countywide EMS levy. The logic there is that it's better to have a uniform tax rate and common standards countywide for EMS. Given the results and reputation of King County's (fire based) EMS system, I think that's true. The last King County EMS levy passed a few years back with something like 85% of the vote.



Hope this isn't all too boring.