Has the Kitsap fire district merger flamed out?

Consolidating the South Kitsap and Central Kitsap fire districts and the Bremerton city fire department into a regional fire protection service authority is apparently turning out to be more difficult than anticipated.

Aside from organizational changes that may be needed to mesh the three into one, there are a few questions the voters would be considering which require some good answers.

In a regional authority the same property tax levy would apply to everyone, so it is important to see how taxpayers in each of the three areas would be affected.

Decisions about services provided in the regional authority’s area would be made by the regional authority’s board, so voters need to know the likely impact on the services they now receive.

Unlike the annexation of a city into a fire district, formation of a regional authority requires approval by a majority of all those voting in the proposed service area.

For annexation, a majority in the city and a majority in the existing fire district are required for approval.

Choosing between the annexation procedure and the formation of a regional authority is an important decision, since the regional authority could be approved by voters in one area despite the wishes of the voters in another.

Predicting how voters in Central Kitsap and Bremerton may vote on a proposed regional authority compared to those in South Kitsap is probably impossible, but estimating the impact on tax burdens can be done.

If the impact on taxes paid by South Kitsap residents seems likely to be undesirable for the majority of us, the importance of a decision by our fire district’s commissioners to place the measure on the ballot should be obvious.

Once formation of a regional authority is put on the ballot, South Kitsap residents are subject to the will of the majority of voters living within the proposed boundaries of the regional authority. The chance to opt out ends when our commissioners place it on the ballot.

Based on this year’s property tax levies and assessed valuations, the three fire protection entities don’t appear to fit well together.

Based on the population estimates made by the state’s Office of Financial Management, the residents of Central Kitsap and South Kitsap would apparently pay a disproportionate amount of the regional authority’s levy.

The approximate assessed valuation per capita in Central Kitsap is $119,000; in South Kitsap it’s $108,000; and in Bremerton it’s $84,000.

A regional authority’s levy would collect more per person in Central and South Kitsap than it would in Bremerton.

Since Bremerton spends more per capita on fire protection and emergency medical services, it would be difficult to avoid requiring Central and South Kitsap taxpayers to pay some of the cost of services in Bremerton.

More revenue would be paid to a regional authority by Central and South Kitsap taxpayers, and more spending would occur per capita in Bremerton unless there is a way to spend the revenue in the areas it came from.

If there is a way to avoid having the residents of Central and South Kitsap pay a significant part of the cost of services in Bremerton, then the planning committee needs to explain how it could be done.

One might think Bremerton residents would jump at the chance to pass part of their tax burden to others, and thus would vote overwhelmingly in favor of either a regional authority or annexation into a fire district.

They probably would, so long as they don’t know that the city would continue to levy its property taxes each year while residents pay a new tax to the fire district or regional authority.

City officials would probably love to have an extra $5 million or more each year to spend on other things, but Bremerton residents may have different opinions.

Since a ballot proposition to annex Bremerton into one of the fire districts would give the majority of voters in each of the affected areas the ability to opt out for their own reasons, annexation seems the better way to proceed.

Bob Meadows is a Port Orchard resident.

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