Voters in several eastern Washington counties gave school, fire and other special taxing districts a big Valentine’s Day gift.
Most, if not all, of the levies are on their way to victory, some by wide margins.
In Spokane County, the Spokane Valley Fire Department and Fire District 8 each have tax levies with more than two-thirds approval. According to figures posted Tuesday night by the county elections office, The Spokane Valley fire measure won about 67% of the vote. The District 8 levy had 68%. Some ballots still need to be counted, but if the results hold, the money will help those agencies replace older equipment and, in the case of Spokane Valley, build a new fire training center. Valley Fire Chief Frank Soto, Junior feels good about the likely outcome.
“I was confident that the message was out there. My concern, obviously, was and is the current economic outlook. That was pretty concerning," he said.
If the results hold, it will be the department’s second successful ballot measure in the last six months. The voters also approved a levy lid lift in August. Those two levies are the department’s major funding sources.
Soto, Junior said, if the measure had failed, the department likely would have gone to voters again later this year.
"A lot of the questions I got internally were, 'Hey, Chief, do we hire this academy class?' 'Do we move forward with trying to get more medics?' 'Do we move forward with getting another engine company or ERU [Emergency Response Unit] companies in order to respond to an increasing call volume?' And my answer each time was absolutely yes," he said.
There was also good news for many eastern Washington school districts.
Voters in Pend Oreille County are on their way to approving three school levies, in Newport, Cusick and Selkirk.
The Kettle Falls School District had two levies on the ballot, one collecting about 54.5% of the vote, the other 59%.
In central Washington, Odessa, Othello, Okanogan, Sprague and Wilbur won majority approval. The Sprague ballot measure had the highest vote percentage with 72% support. Wilbur had the tightest race, but collected 52% of the votes with some still to count.
In Whitman County, school districts in Lamont, Colton and Oakesdale are also celebrating apparent levy wins.
