Thankfully, we passed our lid lift levy last year. Our citizens spoke up for us overwhelmingly and we were able to maintain the same understaffed level of service. The alternative would have been disasterous for the fire department and the citizens of Spokane.
I guess where I'm going with this is, I am very interested in making sure the public knows we are good servants with their money. A lot of the editorials about the situation at Stn 17 really made me aware that the citizens view the fire stations as their property and rightfully so. I believe we will soon be looking to renew the levy which helped build new firehouses, perform upgrades on exisiting firehouses and purchase new apparatus.
We heard from citizens who wondered why we were building new stations, as we were laying off firefighters. We awkwardly explained the "two different pots of money" phenomenon.
In my opinion (and it may be an uneducated opinion), the two most important levies we face are the lidlift (up for renewal in another year and a half) and the EMS levy (up for renewal in another 4 and a half years - I think). These are the levies that keep firefighters working for the city. The EMS levy must pass by over 60%, and it was real close last time.
Before we start on the remodel of the administration building and Station One, a remodel that will relocate equipment and personnel out of the area they protect, I would like to know how much money is left in this levy.
If there is a substantial amount, is there any mechanism to allow voters (or the city council) to put this money aside for paying to keep firefighters on the job? Maybe it could be a fund we draw from for the next 10 years. Maybe we could even give the money back to the taxpayers to show that we've been, and will continue to be, good stewards. What kind of message would we send the taxpayers if we said, "We've accomplished many of the big projects we wanted to do, with the money you've given us. But, we know that we're going to have to ask you for money later - just to make sure we have firefighters who will respond to your home in an emergency, and times are tight. So, we're going to give you back the remainder of your levy money, or we'd like to set it aside for personnel costs - your choice."
I don't know if this is something we could legally do, or if it's even a good idea. I would sure like to hear what you think. If you have some ideas, or want to comment, just click on the comment button and you can leave a post.
Thanks, John
2 comments:
I believe that school district 81 did not spend all their levy money and gave it back to the tax payers right before the last election. I totally agree about not spending all the money with little extras and then telling people that it is different money. Hope all is going well!
Local 29 member
There are a couple of ways to "give back" collected taxes. The simplest would be to take whatever funds are left from the bond issue and pay off the bonds early. With the bonds paid off, you would stop collecting the taxes earmarked for paying them off.
There are ways to literally give the money back to the citizens/taxpayers, but I would expect it would end up being much more complicated and expensive. A simple tax relief would be very effective politically anyway, especially given the tax increases that were pushed last fall in the name of public safety.
As for John's other question regarding using bond dollars for fire-fighters, the short answer is no. Bond Issues are intended to pay for capital projects, such as buildings, improvements and equipment (like our apparatus). They are not intended to pay for ongoing costs like regular employees. You can pay for those administering the bond's projects, as we are with Bassen and Reed.
Levy's are used to pay for ongoing costs. This is why our brothers at the fire districts float their maintenance and operations levies every couple years to maintain their staffing and service. The junior taxing authorities such as fire districts have more flexibility in this regard than cities.
I really don't have a problem spending the $50K on the remodel at 1's. It is such a piddling amount of the millions we borrowed with the bond issue and it's been such a pit for years. I would ask how long we are keeping the two retired employees on with bond dollars with all the large projects completed?
Bob Ladd
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