Voters appear poised to approve new funding for Key Peninsula fire after staffing challenges
The money would help close a funding gap that has led to staff shortages and a series of temporary station shutdowns.
The measure would reset the Key Peninsula Fire Department's EMS tax levy rate to 50 cents per $1,000 in assessed property value. Though voters approved that rate in 2019, property tax laws have allowed it to drop to 32 cents per $1,000 in assessed value, according to the fire chief.
The new rate would mean someone who owns a $500,000 home in the district would pay $250 a year, which is about $90 more than that homeowner pays now.
The department says the levy lid lift request would bring in more than $900,000 in additional revenue each year for emergency services, allowing them to fill four vacancies, increase daily minimum staffing levels, and avoid station shutdowns.
The shutdowns happened between six to 10 times early this year, according to the chief, and typically lasted a full shift (around 24 hours).
'The next nearest station could be coming from way to the north of us, perhaps from another city, so you could be talking about a response time difference from, say, five minutes to 15 to 20 minutes,' said Fire Chief Nick Swinhart.
Those issues started after voters rejected the renewal of a levy that helped pay for staffing costs in November. The department was forced to make budget cuts this year.
Bob Green, who lives in the area, voted to approve the request in this week's election.
'You want to be able to call somebody and have them come in a short period of time,' he said.
Teresa Ives voted against it, citing distrust over the department's ability to manage its funds.
Her concerns are similar to those of some other voters who spoke in opposition to the November levy renewal request.
'My property taxes will go up,' she said. 'So, yeah, who wants to pay more?'
Latest numbers show about 62% of voters in the district have approved the measure, while 38% have voted against it.
Votes are still being counted, and results will be posted here,.
Solve the daily Crossword
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
23 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Melania Trump threatens to sue Hunter Biden over ‘salacious' Epstein comments
US first lady Melania Trump has demanded that Hunter Biden retract comments linking her to sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein and threatened to sue if he does not. Ms Trump takes issue with two comments Mr Biden, son of former president Joe Biden, made in an interview this month with American journalist Andrew Callaghan. He alleged that Epstein introduced the first lady to now-President Donald Trump. The statements are false, defamatory and 'extremely salacious' Melania Trump's lawyer, Alejandro Brito, wrote in a letter to Mr Biden. Mr Biden's remarks were widely disseminated on social media and reported by media outlets around the world, causing the first lady 'to suffer overwhelming financial and reputational harm', he wrote. Mr Biden made the Epstein comments during a sprawling interview in which he lashed out at 'elites' and others in the Democratic Party he says undermined his father before he dropped out of last year's presidential campaign. 'Epstein introduced Melania to Trump. The connections are, like, so wide and deep,' Mr Biden said in one of the comments Ms Trump disputes. Mr Biden attributed the claim to author Michael Wolff, whom Mr Trump disparaged in June as a 'Third Rate Reporter'. He has accused Mr Wolff of making up stories to sell books. The first lady's threats echo a favoured strategy of her husband, who has aggressively used litigation to go after critics. Public figures like the Trumps face a high bar to succeed in a defamation case. The president and first lady have long said they were introduced by Paolo Zampolli, a modelling agent, at a New York Fashion Week party in 1998. The letter is dated August 6 and was first reported on Wednesday by Fox News Digital. Abbe Lowell, a lawyer who has represented Mr Biden in his criminal cases and to whom Brito's letter is addressed, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Bloomberg
25 minutes ago
- Bloomberg
Elizabeth Warren Probes Lutnick Son on Reported Tariff Bets
Democratic Senators Elizabeth Warren and Ron Wyden wrote a letter to Cantor Fitzgerald LP Chairman Brandon Lutnick raising questions about possible conflicts of interest and insider trading in bets the firm reportedly made on the legality of Trump administration tariffs. Lutnick is the son of US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, a key figure in the Trump administration's tariff policies. The letter, dated Wednesday, was released by the senators on Thursday morning.
USA Today
an hour ago
- USA Today
Report slams Trump's DC homeless policy. Should it be a crime to be homeless?
As President Donald Trump tries to forcibly remove homeless people from Washington, D.C., one think tank is warning that policies that criminalize or punish people for sleeping outside are not just cruel, they're ineffective. Trump plans to seize control of Washington's Metropolitan Police Department and sweep homeless people off the city's streets, he said at an Aug. 11 press conference. Those steps would go against evidence that anti-homeless laws and actions can exacerbate the problem, according to an Aug. 6 report by Mari Castaldi, director of state housing policy at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP), a nonpartisan Washington-based think tank often described as left-leaning. When people are removed from public spaces where they've been living, the report noted, they may lose personal property, have traumatic encounters with law enforcement and incur criminal records and fines that make it harder to get a job or rental housing. "Communities implementing these practices actively hinder people from exiting homelessness, thus worsening, not solving, the nation's homelessness crisis," Castaldi wrote. Homelessness can lead to jail in many states, cities "Since 2022, at least eight states have passed — and dozens more have considered — legislation to ticket, fine, or jail people simply for having no safe place to sleep," Castaldi wrote. What's more, the report said, more than 320 local ordinances to fine or arrest people for sleeping outside have been introduced since the Supreme Court's Grants Pass v. Johnson decision determined that it may be considered a crime. On July 24, Trump signed an executive order making it easier for cities and states to remove homeless people from the streets. When rental assistance and similar services are well-funded, homelessness declines, the report says, citing such policy experiments in Chattanooga, Tennessee, Los Angeles and among veterans nationally. The CBPP report is among several that critique policies championed by the Cicero Institute, a think tank that describes itself as nonpartisan. Cicero was founded by Joe Lonsdale, a Silicon Valley entrepreneur who backed Trump's campaign for president in 2024. More: America's housing is pulling further out of reach, report finds The policies endorsed by CBPP are "untenable," Cicero argues. "Instead, states should pursue minimally viable shelter options and sanctioned encampments with services. Permanent supportive housing doesn't address homelessness – it creates demand for more homelessness and supports cronyism." The group also believes that such policies trap the homeless where they are, rather than providing a path to self-sufficiency. "That's why, despite increased spending, homelessness has continued to rise over the past two decades," Cicero says. Read next: Why do over 1 million Americans live in 'plumbing poverty,' lacking running water? CBPP and other groups see the increase in homelessness as stemming from a failure to respond to the affordable housing crisis. "Homelessness is solvable," Castaldi says. "The way forward is not through punishing people for struggling under a flawed system, but through prioritizing supports that can end their homelessness or prevent it from occurring in the first place."
