The money raised will be dedicated to adding eight firefighter/medics, sufficient to add another response unit at Fire Station 1. This will help ensure that a unit is always available to respond to emergency medical and fire calls. And it will allow five new police officers, sufficient to change the shift structure to have better coverage during high-call-volume times of day.
With only 4,900 votes counted, the city's proposition one is passing by a 68 percent to 32 percent margin. The county is set to continue the vote count today and release more numbers tonight.
The proposed levy lid lift will increase city property taxes by 36 cents per thousand of assessed valuation.
The levy amount will cost a $650,000 home in Anacortes about $19.50 per month. After approval of the levy lid lift, Anacortes’s city tax rate will be $1.52 per thousand, which will still be lower than all the cities in Skagit County except Burlington (which has unusually high sales tax revenue for a city its size).