The Hauser Lake Fire Protection District and Volunteer Fire Department will float a $480,675 maintenance and operations levy reset in May.
If approved by the required 66.67% supermajority of voters, the levy would raise Hauser Fire’s annual base budget from $255,392 to $736,067, after which the state’s 3% cap per year would apply as normal going forward. The yearly $.51 per $1,000 property owners in the district are now paying would go up to $1.48 per $1,000, for a fee increase of $.97 per $1,000 of taxable assessed property value beginning Oct. 1, if the supermajority is reached.
This is the first time since 2003 the department will put forth a levy measure to its constituents, and only the second time since Hauser Fire’s inception in 1952. The department was officially established as a fire protection district in 1976.