Editor, the VOICE:
I’ve always had a lot of respect for our firefighters. I can’t say the same for the Fire District 43 Commissioners. They ran this FBC in November and lost so they are back at it again. Their website says it costs $50,000-$75,000 to run a typical election so the way I figure it, they have squandered $100,000 of your money promoting this scam, not including all the propaganda in the mail.
The FBC is an “Empire Building” scheme to raise the price of fire protection, period. If it were to pass, they would simply spend whatever amount they wish and send you the bill. You would have no input into what they wish to purchase or how much it would cost. In other words, you would be giving the commissioners a blank check to use as they wanted. No input, no vote, just go along with their program.
I did, as the Maple Valley Fire and Life Safety suggested and figured-out how much more I would have to pay with a FBC. Since the FBC supposedly gets property information from King County, I too went to King County and looked-up my parcel. I found out how much square footage I had and then entered my parcel into the FBC comparison tool. To my surprise I found that the Fire District said my place was larger than King County records showed by 940 sq. ft.! And, would you believe, the Fire District figured it would cost me a whopping $319.17 more, with the FBC, and for what?
A FBC was approved in Kent in 2011. Well, they are at the limit of the taxation, they’ve run out of money and now they want an excess levy to construct fire stations. No good how wonderful they make it sound, they are just putting lipstick on a pig.
Folks, we’ve done our fire district well for many years. They, like us have to learn to live within their means. Market value on a building is fair. As shown above, square footage can be manipulated easily. There is an old adage that says “if it isn’t broken, don’t fix it. Vote NO on Proposition 1.
Harvey Hawken
