In 2014, voters in Bend and Deschutes County approved levies for the fire services in Bend and the rural county, which helped to reduce the time it took firefighters and emergency services to get to places where their help was needed. Taxpayers in Bend and rural Deschutes County have seen a levy of 20 cents per $1,000 of assessed value on their property tax bills since then – levies that are set to expire in 2024. When those expire, Bend Fire & Rescue and the Deschutes County Rural Fire Protection District are asking for a new, increased levy of 76 cents per $1,000 of assessed value – which amounts to roughly $19 per month for someone whose home is valued at $300,000 – the average taxable assessed value in the city. (Keep in mind that Oregon homes tend to be assessed at a far lower rate than the market value due to laws set in place in the 1990s.)
We think this is an investment worth paying for.
With a growing city and county come the need for more services – some of which fall, like it or not, on emergency responders. These crucial members of our community respond to medical emergencies and car crashes, help with water rescues and respond to not just structure fires, but wildland fires, too. They also respond to emergencies among the houseless community.
Two of Bend Fire’s stations spend roughly 20% of their time responding to calls at either Hunnell Road or the area around the Lighthouse Navigation Center, Fire Chief Todd Riley told us. Right now, some of the positions that help maintain reasonable response times – six minutes in the city and nine minutes in the rural county – are funded through American Rescue Plan dollars – dollars that will go away in June 2024. Bend and Deschutes County, among the fastest-growing areas in the nation, need an increase in staff, not a reduction. So in addition to keeping staffing at the level it is now, these levies would help support the addition of 10 more staff. Now is not the time to see their numbers dwindle, but grow so that all of us can depend on fast responses in an emergency. Vote Yes on Measures 9-158 and 9-159.
Editor’s note: The original graphic for this story read “May 23, 2023.” It’s since been changed to “May 2023” to indicate the month and year of the election. The date of the May election is May 16, 2023. In addition, the print edition lists 75, not 76 cents, as the proposed levy rate. We regret the errors.
This article appears in Source Weekly April 6, 2023.
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You’ve got to be kidding? But then again the Source never met a tax it didn’t support. Due to an insatiable appetite for growth (which is an entirely different problem) the property tax roll is constantly increasing in the district, which equates to more money for the district. Due to the increasing value of real estate the assessed value of property is constantly increasing in the district, which leads to more money for the district.
Make due with what you have. You do not have a revenue problem you have a spending problem. Vote No!
In response to sundevils13 post about “making due (sic) with what” Bend Fire has, The Bulletin published a very helpful editorial Friday, April 7 that addresses this exact common misunderstanding. While growth in Bend does mean more property taxes (and many other issues we all recognize), there are a number of barriers standing in the way of that growth equating to sufficient funding for the fire department. Those barriers include the Oregon constitutional measure that specifically prevents municipalities from increasing taxes to address increasing costs, and Bend’s insanely low tax rate (it’s one of the lowest in the state). We are fortunate to have a fire department committed to innovation, technology, and just plain hard work to make do with a funding rate that is very low against comparable departments in Oregon.