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Fire battalion chief: new ambulance staffing improves response times, officials warn tax-increment financing can divert levy revenue
Summary
Clark County fire officials said a new ambulance contract provides paramedic staffing on rigs and has reduced response times; battalion chief and station staff also warned that tax increment financing (TIF) arrangements can divert property‑tax growth — including fire and EMS levies — from fire districts.
Battalion Chief Abe Rommel, representing Clark County fire resources and the Fairgrounds-area station, told the neighborhood association that a recent ambulance contract increased paramedic coverage on county rigs and has reduced response times on high‑priority calls.
“We actually went to go to the people and said, hey. We need an EMS lehi, which now has paramedics on all our rigs as well as we staff an ambulance, that on the high priority calls so that the chest pain calls, the heart attacks, the strokes, we now are the ambulance for all the ones and twos… We're averaging 14 minutes or less now,” Rommel said, describing the operational change and shorter patient arrival times.
Rommel also explained that the station is co‑staffed under an interlocal arrangement and that the station ran about 1,400 calls last year; January and February figures reflected slower months but high overall call volume.
On finance, Rommel warned that tax increment financing (TIF) mechanisms being used by some cities to fund infrastructure can reduce revenue available to fire districts. “The way the law was written, it also takes ours,” he said, explaining that TIF can divert the growth in property‑tax revenue — including what would otherwise fund EMS and fire levies — to city infrastructure projects for a set period.
Rommel said fire leadership is working with state legislators and local governments to mitigate impacts, and that the district is exploring other mitigation strategies, including cooperation with cities on property purchases and siting.
Ending: Fire staff encouraged residents to attend a county meeting about TIF and to follow station updates; they said improved ambulance staffing benefits response to the most serious medical calls while longer‑term funding questions remain under discussion with county and state officials.
