Fire Chief Cowan sounds the alarm on Northshore’s “critical” budget imbalance

By Oliver Moffat

For the first time in over 20 years, the Northshore fire department will ask voters to approve a levy lid lift on the August 6th ballot. Rising labor and operational costs plus upcoming capital improvement projects are burning up Northshore’s budget but state laws limit how fast the department can raise rates to pump in more revenue.

This week, Fire Chief Matt Cowan warned the city councils of Lake Forest Park and Kenmore the department’s revenue has reached a “critical” imbalance.

“The reason we need to do a lid lift, is this slide,” Fire Chief Matt Cowan told the Lake Forest Park city council about a graph that shows revenues from the fire benefit charge increasing above 60% 

Most of Northshore’s revenue comes from two sources: the fire levy and the fire benefit charge. Under state law, the revenue collected from the fire benefit charge may not exceed 60% of the operating budget but state law allows fire departments to increase levy revenue by no more than 1% per year.

Expenses have been increasing at a much faster rate than 1% in recent years which means the share of revenue coming from the fire benefit charge now exceeds 60%.

“This has been known for at least over the last seven or eight years… previous administrations prior to Shoreline taking on the contract have known about this. Staff has made the recommendations to do a lid lift in previous years and it has not been done,” Cowan told the Kenmore council. 

“I’m not going to guess as to the different reasons but it has been deferred and deferred… to the point now where it's critical,” he said.

Screenshot from LFP City Council meeting
showing Chief Cowan addressing the council

Cowan told the Lake Forest Park council the lid lift should not result in major tax increases because any increases in the levy rate will be offset by decreases in the fire benefit charge.

“We may not need to increase the revenues much at all or very minimally. So this is not about getting more money… We're just trying to make it proportionate and diversified again,” said Cowan.

The fire levy is based on the assessed value of a property while the fire benefit charge is based on square footage of buildings - which means some property owners with relatively small homes and homes with relatively high assessed values might see increases in their property taxes.

Northshore voters first approved the fire benefit charge in 1989 and voters re-authorize the fee every six years - meaning it will need to be re-authorized for the sixth time next year.

In 2022, Northshore signed a contract to pay the Shoreline Fire Department to provide administrative, operational, and support services; all employees work for the Shoreline Fire Department but the two fire departments have separate levies and fire benefit charges.

The Shoreline and Northshore Fire Departments plan to place a measure on next February’s ballot to seek approval to merge the departments together into a Regional Fire Authority (RFA). If approved, the levy rate would be adjusted again to be the same across the RFA service area.

Information on how to attend future fire commissioner meetings and provide comments is available on the department’s website.