I am strongly urging the voters of the city of SeaTac to vote no on Proposition 1, which will substantially raise your taxes and be on the ballot Sept. 19.

We all want good fire service and I believe we have had it in the past and will have it in the future. Our firemen are highly trained, well paid and a credit to our community. Our fire service has received many accolades and few complaints. In fact, in 50 years of residency we have never had a complaint of bad service or lack of caring.

The only complaint I've heard is, "Why does the fire department run five rigs to every little incident?"

When we incorporated, the city had 14 full-time firemen. We now have 53 and they propose going to 70. Our city has been extremely generous in financial support for fire service. In 1991, the fire budget was almost $2.8 million. In 2006, it was $5.7 million, over a 100 percent increase. The city already has $1.3 million in the fire equipment replacement fund.

In addition, the city has $18.5 million in the general fund which they have been offering to wealthy developers for "pie in the sky" projects. The $18.5 million are sacred taxpayers dollars that should be used for municipal services and belongs to all the taxpayers who paid it in the past.

To say in the city mailer, "the city does not have sufficient savings to pay for new equipment," is just plain false. The city is in sound financial condition and has plenty of money to provide all municipal services.

Another very troubling aspect of this proposition is the nearly completely lack of public hearings. The plan has been created with little or no public hearings, not even in McMicken Heights where they propose to build a huge terminal fire center in a residential and school neighborhood.

One taxpayer found out he was going to be booted out of his house when he read it in the Highline Times. Closed executive sessions were held where no public comment was allowed. What's happened to public process and involvement?

Although state law says the city cannot "endorse or oppose any ballot proposition" the city has spent at least $8,329.00 on high powered public relations firms for TV presentations, mailers, and advertising telling you how to vote.

The city mailer is obviously intended to scare voters and most of the information is slanted to downright wrong. To my knowledge, the city has never before resorted to or paid for this type of public relation misinformation.

Don't kid yourself. This is a major tax increase, that you will never get rid of, to fund a bloated, flawed and ill defined grab of tax dollars.

Please vote no on Proposition 1.

Frank Hansen

Former Mayor of SeaTac