The Maple Valley Fire and Life Safety Proposition No. 1 levy lid lift on this Nov. 7 ballot is asking voters a to consider a serious question about fire and emergency protection in Fire District 43.

The fire board placed the proposition on the ballot following the failure of the fire benefit charge measure in the August election.

The ballot proposition states, “If approved, this proposition would allow the District to restore its previously voter-approved tax levy rate of $1.50 per $1,000 of assessed valuation in 2017 for collection in 2018.”

The ballot explanatory statement says, “Approval of this proposition would allow the District to maintain the current level of services. Rejection of this proposition would lead to the annual loss of at least 18 percent or $1,672,623.66 of revenue. This loss of revenue would require significant cutbacks in critical services, closing station(s) and potential elimination of special services such as rescue teams.”

Fire Chief Aaron Tyerman said over time the department has not been able to keep up with inflation due to the 1 percent limit on total property tax revenue over the previous year’s revenue, which is why the fire department is in the situation it is in now.

“When your house value goes up, we’re not allowed to collect what the new value is on that,” Tyerman said.

Mayor Sean P. Kelly said, “If it (the levy) doesn’t pass we’re going to be really hurting. Since the city was incorporated they haven’t added any firefighters in the city.”

Tyerman stressed that this is not a new tax.

“(Put) simply, we are required by law to go out and ask for the taxes we are allowed to collect,” Tyerman said.

Tyerman said he is still afraid the levy won’t pass since the fire benefit charge failed to pass during the August elections.

“It’s always a concern in the back of our mind that it’s not going to pass,” he said. “If the lid lift does not pass, I really don’t have any confidence something different will pass.”

If the levy does pass, Tyerman said he will be able to hire three more firefighters. He also said Fire Station 83 would be open full time again, which will help to make response times faster again.

“It will get us up to our safety limits,” Kelly said. “We have such a lean staff out here and they’ve gone years without funding.”

Tyerman said he wants to thank the public for going out and voting and letting the department know what they want, even if that means not voting the way he hopes.

“I’ll be honest, I don’t know (if it will pass),” Tyerman said. “I thought I had a good feeling about the FBC (Fire Benefit Charge) and had a lot of support from the public, but around here, until Nov. 7, I don’t know.”