The term silky smooth describes Al Church's assessment of his department's transition from two independent fire districts into the new South King Fire & Rescue.

With such a calm demeanor and pleasant smile, it's hard to imagine that Chief Church oversees one of the state's largest and busiest fire districts.

Nearly nine months have passed since the Federal Way Fire District merged with Des Moines' District 26, and Chief Church claims the new merger has a cultivated a newfound sense of synergy among his team.

"We've had a couple of years of work prior to the merger on January 1," Chief Church said in an interview at the 1st Avenue Station in Federal Way last Thursday. "But it's been a smooth process."

"The transition of the District 26 officers into the new district, as well as the transition of the Federal way officers, has worked out really well," the Chief said. "There's definitely really good synthesis between the firefighters and officers."

The new department's apparent lack of growing pains definitely benefits the new South King Fire District, which now sees its service area expand to 150,000 residents over a span of 40 square miles, from the city of Des Moines to unincorporated King County east of Federal Way.

"The call volume," the Chief added, "has definitely increased." The department expects the number of services calls to continue rising annually, but with a larger response area to cover, this year's numbers should take a hefty jump over those fielded in 2005.

Last year, the department followed up on 15,032 calls for service, a staggering response average of 40 per day.

And now, as much as ever, the department must call on the taxpayers to help fund their local fire and rescue district.

For the last five years, the agency has operated on a budget comprised primarily of property taxes collected from the residents served. Church stated that more than 95 percent of his district's annual revenue comes from those property taxes, at levy rate of $1.50 per $1,000 of assessed value.

"Basically, citizens pay $150 a year for every $100,000 in their home value for fire protection, emergency medical services, hazardous material protection and a host of other services," the Chief said. This levy rate applies to communities north of Federal Way that became part of South King Fire and Rescue after the merger.

"Before the merger," Church said, "we worked really hard to see that the levy rate for Federal Way and Des Moines was exactly the same."

But with property values soaring, the department is limited each year by how much they can collect from taxpayers.

I-747, passed by Washington voters in 2001, caps the amount of tax revenue a fire department can generate to no more than one percent over the previous year. To increase its funding to match the rising costs of providing fire and emergency services, each city must elect to "lift the lid" on that one percent cap.

"The rising costs of our expenses far exceeds one percent a year," Church said. "The bigger districts cannot maintain their level of service at an annual one percent increase."

"It's really simple mathematics," the Chief said. "If you're limited by one percent, and you're costs are going up three or four percent, something's got to give."

On September 19, Federal Way voters will go the polls to approve or reject Proposition 1, a measure which allows South King Fire and Rescue to collect revenue beyond the constraints put in place by I-747.

For Church, the voter response serves as report card of the previous year of service.

"We have the voters tell us every year," Church said, "We ask: 'Do you want to maintain the level of service you receive, or do you want us to cut back?'"

He said the success of Proposition 1 will confirm his belief that residents in the district's service area approve of the quality and quantity of services his agency provides.

"The community has been very supportive of the service they're getting," Church said. For the past five years, Federal Way voters have elected to lift the lid by passing Proposition 1.

He also urged that a failure to pass the measure would cut short his department's budget by approximately $850,000. With rising fuel and maintenance costs, Church said a failure to approve Proposition 1 would lead to significant cuts in staff and lagging response times to emergency calls.

Appealing to the voters every year also causes an economic burden on the department.

"We're trying very hard, legislatively, to allow voters to approve a lid lift for a six-year period," Church said. "Cities and towns can make those changes, but fire districts cannot."

"We're just trying to allow our citizens the choice," Church said. "And whatever they tell us, we will live with."