This editorial will appear in Friday’s print edition.

Voters in the South King Fire & Rescue service area are being asked to go where few voters in this state have gone before: to approve something called a “benefit charge.”

This funding formula – one that isn’t based solely on the taxpayer’s property value – has been available to fire districts since the late 1980s but is in use in only a few, including Central Pierce Fire & Rescue.
The advantage of this diversified formula is that it provides more stable funding than one based solely on property values.

During the recession, with property tax collections plummeting, fire district funding took a hit. Assessed valuations in the Federal Way and Des Moines area served by the department dropped 14.6 percent, decreasing the fire district’s revenue by $3.7 million in 2010. Districts using a benefit charge for part of their funding have been better able to weather the downturn. Read more »

It’s easy to have an inferiority complex here in the South Sound, where stories seem to be covered by the big media outlets only if they involve a crime of some sort.

But Pierce County gets some positive attention Wednesday in the Seattle Times. Editorial writer Joni Balter writes that voters here have a lot of clout in statewide elections and may even hold the key in close votes. They likely are the voters who are keeping Dave Reichert in office and made Dino Rossi’s first run for governor such a close race, she writes.

Read her column here. …

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This editorial will appear in tomorrow’s print edition.

Maybe the citizens of the 25th District are unusually public-spirited, or maybe Democrats just look like easy prey this year. Five – count ’em, five – candidates have stepped up to challenge the Democratic incumbent, Dawn Morrell, in House Position 2.

Morrell’s Republican seatmate in Position 1, meanwhile, has drawn only a single challenger. State Rep. Bruce Dammeier’s race against Democrat John Thompson will be decided in the November election.

The oddest sub-contest in Position 2 is between Morrell and her ostensibly Democratic challenger, Ron Morehouse of Spanaway.

Morehouse ran two years ago as a Republican, and his very conservative positions would place him toward the rightward edge of the GOP. A Central Pierce fire commissioner, he won election last year to the Bethel School Board. He’s been a disappointment in that position, and his opposition to his district’s vital February school levy left many citizens angry.

Morrell, four-term House veteran, has done well as a lawmaker since she was elected eight years ago. Fellow Democratic lawmakers have recognized her leadership ability and chosen her as caucus chairwoman, making her the Pierce County delegation’s highest-ranking legislator in the House.
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This editorial will appear in Monday’s print edition.

Many predict this will be a good year for Republicans, and the state party is hungry to reclaim the two 28th Legislative District House seats it lost to Democrats in recent years.

The 28th – which includes Lakewood, University Place, Fircrest, Steilacoom and part of West Tacoma – long leaned Republican. It still has a Republican state senator, Mike Carrell. But it elected Democrats Tami Green and Troy Kelley in 2004 and 2006 respectively. Both are vulnerable in this district this year.

Only one seat in the 28th Legislative District is contested in the Aug. 17 primary – House Position 2, held by Green, a Lakewood resident. Kelley faces a single opponent, attorney Steve O’Ban in the Nov. 2 general election. Read more »

This editorial will appear in Tuesday’s print edition.

Tax dollars support a multitude of public services, but none is more important than the emergency interventions of of local fire departments. When fires, heart attacks and car crashes threaten lives, speedy and professional responses are essential.

On Aug. 17, voters in four Pierce County fire districts will be asked to reaffirm their support for that response. Three districts’ ballot measures are simply renewals of existing levies to maintain current service levels; a fourth would increase a property owner’s tax in order to expand service. All deserve voter approval. Read more »

Tuesday is an important one for many South Sound school districts. They need voters to either get to the polls or remember to turn in their absentee ballots and support continuation of important maintenance and operation levies.

Those levies aren’t about frills. Although the state supposedly funds basic education – and a King County judge disputes that – school districts would have a hard time educating students and complying with state and federal mandates without levy money. In fact, levies fund about 20 percent of districts’ budgets. Without it, schools would have to cut down to the barest of bones. …

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