Black Diamond emergency services annexation vote around the corner

Published 12:30 pm Wednesday, July 15, 2026

August primary ballots will soon be in the hands of Black Diamond voters — and with them, the decision whether to annex the city into the Puget Sound Regional Fire Authority’s emergency services district.

Residents may have only just started noticing the red and white “Yes Prop. 1” signs being peppered around the city, but the issue of fire protection and emergency services has been an issue in the city for years.

Being annexed into the Regional Fire Authority’s district will increase local property taxes for residents, but failing to annex would almost certainly have equal, or even worse, financial impacts.

The annexation approval needs a simple majority (50%) of voters to pass, and the city would be officially annexed into the Regional Fire Authority’s district by January 1, 2028.

Approving the annexation would add another $1 per $1,000 in assessed property value to local annual tax bills. For someone who owns a $600,000 home, that comes out to an additional $600 in property taxes a year.

But there’s also a “fire benefit charge,” which is not a government tax but a fee set by the Regional Fire Authority.

The department has described the fire benefit charge as a “shock absorber,” as it is not affected by rising or falling levy rates or assessed property value levels.

The fire benefit charge is calculated based on building size, risk, and resources necessary to respond to a fire at a particular location. This means that two similarly-sized homes, even if their APVs are vastly different, would have a similar fire benefit charge.

While it can be difficult to estimate how a fire benefit charge may affect specific homeowners, the Regional Fire Authority provided some examples during an August 2025 council meeting.

Two examples were of a 2,790 square foot house with an APV of $754,000 and a 2,900 square foot house with an APV of $894,000. The fire benefit charge for these homes was $330 and $336 respectively.

After factoring in the additional $1 property tax rate, the owner of the first home would be taxed what would be roughly equal to $1.44 per $1,000 in APV — about $1,084 a year.

The second would be taxes what would be about $1.38 per $1,000 in APV — about $1,230 a year.

Bigger buildings, like warehouses and commercial businesses, are expected to have a higher fire benefit charge.

The fire benefit charge is approved by the Regional Fire Authority’s board and not voters; if Black Diamond is annexed into the district, it would have representatives on the board.

There are some limitation to how high the fire benefit charge can be, namely that the charges cannot exceed 60% of the Regional Fire Authority’s budget.

There are discounts for buildings with certain modern alarms or sprinklers, among other items and qualifications.

NO ANNEXATION?

If residents don’t approve the annexation, there’s still potential cost increases for received services and other repercussions.

According to state law, fire districts can bill property owners directly for the actual cost of putting out a fire when they respond to an out-of-district emergency; out-of-district medical emergency responses and transportation may also be more expensive.

Additionally, home insurance rates could increase; the Washington State Surveying & Rating Bureau may rank property that does not have designated fire protection as Protection Class (PC) 10, the lowest score.

“Most insurance companies covering property in Washington state use WSRB data as one of several inputs to setting fire insurance premiums,” its website reads.

Some insurance companies do not insure PC 10 properties.

Finally, Mountain View Fire and Rescue — the city’s current emergency services provider

Chief Dawn Judkins said that if the annexation is not approved, the fire department is willing to agree to a “fair” contract with Black Diamond.

She said that currently, serving the city is a third of its expenses while only 10% of her department’s revenue, and added that Black Diamond residents pay the equivalent of less than 50 cents per $1,000 in assessed property revenue while the rest of MVFR’s district pays a $1.50 rate.

This could mean that if the city is not annexed into the Regional Fire Authority’s district, the city may have to propose raising property taxes in order to afford a contract with Mountain View — which would mean putting another measure on a future ballot.

HISTORY

Mountain View Fire and Rescue has been Black Diamond’s contracted emergency services provider since 2006.

However, the fire department in 2019 said it would not renew its contract with the city, saying the cost of providing services were not being covered by the city’s payments.

The city and MVFR agreed to a contract with additional funds, but after five years, the department again alerted city officials that it would not renew its contract in 2028 for the same reasons — and this time, a revised contract would not do; only annexation.

After failing to find another department for the city to contract with, Black Diamond had two options left: form its own fire department, or find a department willing to annex the city into its district.

Mountain View and the Puget Sound Regional Fire Authority were the only two departments to respond to the city’s inquiry into possible annexation partners.

After extensive lobbying from both departments, the city council voted 4 – 3 to work with the Regional Fire Authority and be annexed into its district.

MVFR continues to serve as the city’s fire department until the contract expires on Dec. 31, 2027.