November and early December days can be head-scratching days at The Beachcomber, as we attempt to puzzle through annual budgets for 2023 as they are developed by Vashon Park District (VPD) Vashon Island Fire & Rescue (VIFR) and Vashon Health Care District (VHCD).
It’s the bread-and-butter work of local journalists to pore over the budgets of local taxing districts, and we learn a lot about what to expect in the coming year from reporting on these all-important documents.
But budget stories are not easy to write in the best of times, and this year, we’ve had extra considerations to keep in mind.
VIFR’s 2023 budget clearly reflects the focus, determination and ambition of new leadership in the district. (See Fire Chief Matt Vinci’s commentary on this page.)
We’re impressed with Vinci and support his goals to make our fire district more efficient, modern and responsive to islanders in their greatest hours of need.
Just last week, we reported on a devastating house fire on Vashon, which VIFR crews fought valiantly, stopping its spread to other nearby residences. And every day, we expect these first responders to be there for us during all kinds of life-threatening emergencies, as well as times that require more routine care.
It is critically important to our ferry-dependent island, with its aging demographic, that VIFR not be understaffed, as it has been for too long now.
We’re glad Vinci and his administration are addressing this urgent need in our community and support the ways that commitment shows up in VIFR’s 2023 budget — not only in terms of increased expenditures but also in significant new sources of revenue.
Our story about Vashon Park District’s budget was also tricky to write, because at the 11th hour of the budget being developed and approved, the King County Assessor’s office threw a curveball, owning up to a big mistake it made when it informed VPD of a windfall that would increase its revenue last year and in 2023.
(See story, page 1, but trust us, it’s complicated.)
A screw-up by the Assessor’s Office was the last thing that our hard-working and dedicated Parks staff and board wanted to hear about, we’re sure, but they are now pressing forward and on to the next deadline — their weighty decision, by the end of the year, to either replace, repair or demolish Tramp Harbor Dock — a matter of sentimental, environmental and financial concern to islanders.
It’s a fraught decision, filled with various cost scenarios, but Elaine Rocheford-Ott, VPD’s executive director, as well as the board of commissioners, have approached this task with community-mindedness, transparency and intelligence.
This brings us to Vashon Health Care District — another district whose leadership, we believe, truly does have the community’s best interests in mind. In covering their budget decisions, we’ve been impressed by their level-headedness in a time of great upheaval, which was most certainly not of their making.
Sea Mar’s choice to break with the Health Care District and embark on building and operating their own clinic, without oversight, is not in keeping with the spirit and wishes of our community, which voted in a strong majority to establish a health care district after years of seeing clinic operators come and go from the island.
It stings, especially, that Sea Mar has now claimed $3 million dollars in state funding that were allocated first to Neighborcare, and then somehow wound in Sea Mar’s coffers after Neighborcare left. VHCD had hoped to tap that funding to build a community-owned clinic, operated by Sea Mar.
But it didn’t work out that way.
Sea Mar has offered assurances but no firm time commitment for how long they will stay on Vashon, either, and our Health Care District, we believe, was right to pass a conservative budget that allows for contingency spending, if necessary.
Property taxes are a burden — an increasing one, on Vashon. But we believe the leadership of VIFR, VPD and VHCD are responsibly stewarding our community’s resources.
And now that we’re done with our budget stories, next week, we’ll return to the woes of the Vashon Post Office. We have a feeling that will make us miss the numbers-crunching of these past few weeks.
