QuickTake:

Springfield voters in November will consider increasing a local option levy that funds one of the city’s fire stations. The station is currently being subsidized by the city’s already overburdened general fund.

The Springfield City Council on Monday unanimously agreed to ask voters to renew and increase a levy supporting fire and life safety services. 

No one spoke during a public hearing held by the council before it voted on the issue. 

The measure will appear on the November 2025 general election ballot. If the measure passes, the new levy rate will take effect on July 1, 2026.

The five-year local option levy was first established in 2002 and has been renewed by voters four times. Voters most recently approved the levy in November 2020 at a rate of 38 cents per $1,000 of assessed home value for homeowners. 

The levy supports Eugene Springfield Fire Station 3 at North 28th Street and Centennial Boulevard, but city staff have said the current levy rate pays for about two-thirds of costs at the station. The remaining costs are subsidized by the city’s general fund, which is already overburdened, city staff have said.

The measure will ask voters to increase the levy to a rate of 53 cents per $1,000 of assessed value, a 15-cent increase, to pay for full funding of Fire Station 3. 

According to city staff, the median assessed value of a single-family home in Springfield is $189,000. This means the new levy rate would cost the average household $100 a year for five years, an increase of about $28 annually.

Springfield Finance Director Nathan Bell said the levy would raise about $17 million over five years.