Shoreline ballot: Renewal of fire benefit charge

Shoreline Fire Chief Matt Cowan explains the renewal of the fire benefit charge

Shoreline fire has a measure on the ballot which just arrived in Shoreline homes.

It is a renewal of the existing fire benefit charge which was enacted five years ago, in 2016. The fire benefit charge is structured to reflect the costs of fighting fires in different types of buildings, rather than spreading the costs evenly across the district.

Therefore owners of single family homes pay less than owners of commercial structures.

A fire benefit charge is a fee that is determined by the amount of risk that a building poses and by the amount of square footage of a building. It is not assessed on property value. The higher the risk, the larger the fire ­benefit charge.

Fire Chief Matt Cowan posted a 2 minute video, explaining the measure. You can see it here.

This renewal is for ten years, "so we don't have to keep coming back to the voters for renewal."

For the details, here is the original article we published: What does Fire Benefit Charge mean for Shoreline property owners in 2016?