UPDATED: EMS Levy Passing With 63 Percent Voting Yes

is currently passing with 63.7 percent in favor of the new measure.

The Pierce County Auditor's Office released the initial results from Tuesday's special election just after 8 p.m. About 36.3 percent voted against the levy.

Out of 40,443 registered voters, the county has counted 16,417 ballots so far with an estimated 40.6 percent voter turnout.

Gig Harbor Fire will need a "super majority" of 60 percent to adopt the levy.

Fire Chief John Burgess said he’s both relieved and pleased with the results so far.

“I’m thankful for the people here in the community for supporting us. We’re very honored by that and tremendously grateful for it," he said.

The measure will raise the levy rate to 50 cents per $1,000 assessed value, a 15-cent increase from the existing levy of 35 cents per $1,000.

The new permanent levy would cover the costs for Basic and Advanced Life Support, Medic One units, personnel—including paramedics, training, equipment, facilities and 911 emergency response. The measure also covers a patient’s emergency service out-of-pocket costs for local residents who are not reimbursed by their insurance.

The purpose of the levy is to restore funding that the department has lost due to the slow economy, Burgess said.

“We originally started this process almost a year ago when I met with the Chamber Public Forum meeting and told people what was happening to us in this recession,” he said. “We started looking into what we needed to do to maintain our current levels of service, and I think that the message resonated with voters that they didn’t want to see services reduced.”

The second wave of results will be released on 4 p.m. Thursday.