Yelm fire authority 13 votes shy in recount

Voters rejected by 13 votes a proposal to consolidate the city of Yelm and two neighboring fire districts into a regional fire authority, according to a final count of ballots from the August primary.

The Thurston County Canvassing Board certified the results Wednesday afternoon.

The proposal gained a single vote over the previous count late last month. The final tally was 1,675 against and 1,663 in favor of establishing the fire authority.

The proposal required a combined simple majority to pass.

Fire Chief Rita Hutcheson, chief of the two fire districts, which have operated jointly since last year, said the proposal could reappear on the February ballot. The deadline to get the proposal on the November ballot has passed.

Under the authority, property owners in all three districts would pay the same tax rate for fire and basic emergency medical response, $1.50 per $1,000 of assessed property value. It would result in higher taxes for city residents but would not change the rate for those living in the rural fire districts.

In Yelm, the city’s regular levy would have been reduced because it would no longer be used to pay for fire and medical emergency services. But the fire authority would have levied a new tax in 2011, resulting in a net increase in property taxes.

Voters in the two fire districts voted to restore the tax levy to $1.50 per $1,000 of assessed value, the maximum allowed, in August 2007 and that wouldn’t have changed under the authority.

Yelm’s contract for fire and basic emergency medical response expires at the end of 2010.

Forming a fire authority allows neighboring fire districts to consolidate and put more money toward front-line response by eliminating duplicative administrative jobs.

Two key features make an authority different from a merger or a contract for service: A planning committee has the flexibility to determine how an authority operates and is governed, and voters must approve it.

Yelm Mayor Ron Harding has said the difficulty in getting information about the proposal to rural voters had a hand in its defeat.