East County Fire and Rescue wants to thank our board of fire commissioners for considering a levy lid lift to provide necessary funding. The district is struggling to maintain staffing at its stations on both sides of the Washougal River and almost half of our fire engines and water tenders have reached the end of their useful life.
Historically, the district has used part-time firefighters to help maintain staffing, but over the last year, we have seen more than 100 percent turnover in the part-time firefighter program and have often been unable to fill these positions. To maintain staffing, these vacancies have been filled with overtime, which places a tremendous burden on our members and an increased cost to the district.
State law limits increases in the district’s tax revenue to 1 percent per year, which does not keep pace with inflation. In 2019, voters passed a fire levy lid lift restoring the fire levy rate to $1.50 per $1,000 of assessed property valuation. Since that time the district’s levy rate has fallen to $1.08 per $1,000 assessed valuation.
Placing a levy lid lift on the ballot will allow the district’s voters to determine if they would like to increase full-time staffing.
