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The South County Fire Board of Commissioners will hold public hearings Tuesday, Oct. 21 on the regional fire authority’s proposed budget, benefit charge and levies for 2026.
The board meeting begins at 7 p.m. at South County Fire Headquarters, 12425 Meridian Ave. S, Everett. Community members can attend in person or remotely using Zoom to learn more and provide comments. Zoom login instructions are posted on the South County Fire website, www.southsnofire.org/meetings.
The proposed budget is available for review at South County Fire’s website: www.southsnofire.org/budget.
According to a South County Fire news release, the proposed budget “takes action to meet the community’s growing needs while keeping taxpayer costs low, and shifts a slightly higher portion of funding onto the benefit charge instead of property taxes. The benefit charge provides a more fair way to fund emergency services because it’s based on a building’s size and risk instead of property value.”
“Overall, the 2026 funding proposal adds just over $7 per month to the average homeowner’s costs and includes the addition of 30 firefighters plus six administrative staff to preserve emergency services,” South County Fire said.
According to the news release:
- This budget proposes a property tax levy rate slightly less than in 2025: $1.15 per $1,000 of assessed property value.
- The benefit charge for the owner of a 2,000-square-foot-home would increase from $70.39 to $106.92, a difference of less than $37 for the entire year.
- South County Fire has kept property tax rate increases below the rate of inflation since the RFA was formed. The 2026 budget would keep South County Fire among the lowest cost emergency service providers in all of Snohomish County.
In addition to attending the budget, benefit charge and levy hearings in person or via Zoom, comments can also be submitted in advance by email or voicemail to Board of Commissioners Executive Assistant Melissa Blankenship, mblankenship@southsnofire.org, 425-551-1251.
Well, that didn’t take long.
Just four months after we were annexed into South County Fire RFA, they’ve introduced a proposed budget that—based on their own Community Financial Impact Analysis—would hike rates by 11% for the average residential property. This isn’t a minor tweak. It’s on top of the near doubling of costs we already absorbed when joining the RFA. And now, another increase is barreling toward us before we even got our first tax bill.
We’ve already made one financial decision that’s proving costly. Now we’re staring down another, and the question is: are we about to double down on a pattern of escalating costs without fully understanding the long-term implications?
South County Fire, how do you justify this increase? Please don’t say, ‘inflation’.
Be aware of the impact of Property taxes in our region.
https://www.king5.com/article/money/economy/king-county-property-taxes-increasing/281-79a95bdf-74b1-4071-815e-36146b525480
When does the madness stop? Along with this, and Edmonds Prop 1, the Edmonds School District is reviewing a possible $341 million dollar replacement levy in 2026, and I’ve heard rumblings that Community Transit is talking more money, as well.
I am at a loss. Literally.
Using South County Fire’s own numbers, we’re hitting another tipping point.
– The levy rate ticks down to $1.15/$1,000 AV, but the benefit charge on a 2,000-sq-ft home jumps from $70.39 to $106.92 — a $36.53 (≈52%) increase for the year.
-SCF says the average homeowner pays +$7/month (≈**$84/year**) in 2026 to fund 30 new firefighters + 6 admin while “keeping taxpayer costs low.”
I value emergency services. But shifting more funding to a benefit charge (based on structure size/risk, not value) while branding it “lower cost” masks the net increase families will actually see on their bills. When you stack this on top of other local hikes, the total burden matters.
A couple fair asks before adoption:
1. Publish a household impact calculator (by sq. ft. and property value) and a 5-year forecast of levy + benefit charge.
2. Show offsets/efficiencies that temper future increases.
Transparent math builds trust; “rates down, charges up” is still more out-of-pocket for many residents.
SCF is an interesting funding model. They have an EMS Levy and a Property Tax Levy both with the 1% limit without a vote. Taxpayers approved an extension to the Benefit Charge which is not bound by 1%. It can be up to 60% of the budget and last year it was around 8%.
The 2026 budget is growing beyond the 1% but changing the BC will make it easy to create a balanced budget. The rate/1000 is projected to go down but they are still planning to collect the 1%. Each year SCF shows the Rate/1000 and creates an Equilivant Rate/1000 to account for the BC. The table shows these numbers for the past few years, and the total BC collected.
Year….Act Rate….Equilivant Rate….BC$
2023…$1.20……..$1.08……………$6.7m
2024…$1.28……..$1.16……………$7.8m
2025…$1.28……..$1.16……………$7.9m
2026…$1.33……..$1.15……………$14.7m
The Benefit Charge will go over 10% but can go up to 60% of the budget.
It is a bit more complicated than the estimates above but hopefully we can all learn a bit more about the BC. The BC is more than square footage of a home, type of construction, number of stories and other factors go into the BC.
But with the added benefit charge creating the EQ rate of $1.33 that means for a $1m home the new Edmonds fire bill will be around $1330 or for spin “Only $3.64/day 🙂
Look at that BC$ over time 2023-2026: 6.7M to 14.7M. Wow!!!