The bill authorizes a city or town legislative body to create, by resolution and subject to voter approval, a fire protection district whose boundaries are coterminous with the city or town to provide fire prevention, suppression, emergency medical services, and protection of life and property. The resolution must include a financing plan (identifying first‑year levy amounts and estimated property owner impacts), a public hearing date, and required notice; it must include benefit charge compliance if an initial benefit charge is proposed. The legislative authority must consult labor organizations for affected fire and EMS employees and, if applicable, consult the local public hospital district about levy impacts. Voter approval is by simple majority unless an initial benefit charge is proposed, in which case approval requires 60 percent; the election is to be held at the next general election and the county must declare the district organized if approved. Unless the resolution provides otherwise, on the district creation date the district succeeds to the city’s fire powers, property, funds, records, contracts, and employees; appropriations and existing contracts transfer and employees transfer with existing compensation, benefits, and service credit, and collective bargaining rights and civil service arrangements are preserved or subject to negotiation as described. The chapter does not change municipal airport fire departments. The bill also amends state levy law. It revises RCW 84.52.043 to restate senior taxing district levy limits (including specified per‑$1,000 rates for counties, road districts, cities/towns and an aggregate limit for junior and senior districts), and it amends RCW 84.52.125 to permit a fire protection district or regional fire authority to protect up to $0.25 per $1,000 of certain fire district levies outside the $5.90 per $1,000 aggregate limit so those levies are not prorated. The bill includes different levy‑limit and levy‑reduction rules for districts formed before versus on or after July 1, 2026 (including reductions to a city’s lawful levy when a district is formed), and it contains a provision allowing a taxing district’s regular levy to be set as if historical levies since 1986 had been levied at full allowable amounts when a benefit charge is imposed; parts of these transition provisions are time‑limited, with one section expiring January 1, 2027 and another taking effect January 1, 2027. These are amendments to existing statutes affecting procedural formation of local fire protection districts and fiscal levy limits and protections; they do not create new criminal offenses or change criminal penalties. Some amendment text and full effective and expiration details referenced in the bill header are not included in the provided extracts, and specific language amending RCW 84.55.092 and certain other cited sections is missing from the material provided.

If enacted, cities and towns could put a measure to voters to convert their city fire department into a coterminous fire protection district; if voters approve, the new district would receive the fire department’s people, equipment, property, funds, contracts, and responsibilities on the district’s creation date, and employees would move to the district with at least their current pay and accrued benefits and existing collective bargaining protections. Voters would see specific first-year levy amounts and estimated property owner impacts on the ballot, benefit charges would require 60% approval, and counties would run the election and formally declare the district if approved. Practically, this shifts where fire service funding and tax levies sit: property tax authority and levies for fire service would move from the city to the district and the city’s allowable levy would be reduced or constrained under the transition rules, with different levy-limit treatments depending on whether the district is formed before or after July 1, 2026; fire districts would also be able to protect small portions of their levies (up to $0.25 per $1,000) outside the $5.90 aggregate limit, and a temporary provision and a January 1, 2027 transition are included. Important details about some levy formula changes, the exact effective dates in the bill header, and full text of amended levy statutes are missing from the provided excerpts, so the precise tax impacts and timing for every city are unclear.