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Senate panel advances bill to create fire and ambulance special district aid
Summary
The Taxes Committee adopted an A2 author's amendment to Senate File 10-28 and laid the bill over for omnibus consideration. The bill would authorize state aid for fire protection and ambulance special districts and sets certification and payment timelines; Cloquet Area Fire District leaders testified in support.
Senate File 10-28, a proposal to create a state aid program for fire protection and ambulance special districts, was amended and laid over for consideration in the omnibus tax bill after testimony from district leaders and legislators on Wednesday.
The committee adopted an A2 author's amendment by voice vote before hearing the bill. The amendment changes several mechanics of the proposal, including how local levies are averaged for state aid calculations. "With the amendment, what we're doing... is we're going to take a five-year average of the levies," Senator Rarick said when explaining the change. That change was offered to reduce incentives for a district to raise levies in a single year to capture higher state aid.
The bill would create aid for newly formed fire and ambulance special districts that are no longer part of municipal structures and therefore may not receive local government aid (LGA) distributed through cities. "When the municipal boundaries are no longer a factor and you enact a regional approach to emergency services, you can remove redundant apparatus, equipment, and duplicate administrations," testified Jesse Buies, identified as Fire Chief of the Cloquet Area Fire District. Buies told the committee his district consolidated four departments in 2009, eliminated several large apparatus and one station, and expanded service across a mixed area that includes the Fond du Lac Reservation and Interstate 35 corridor through Carlton County.
Buies said special districts lack access to some funding streams available to cities and counties: "A newly formed district has immediate operational expenses, looming capital expenses and more costly items such as facility replacements to consider. A major challenge we face as a special district in Minnesota is the limits in our current system regarding funding opportunities." He noted Cloquet did not receive portions of recent public safety aid and that the district could not access some state grant opportunities; it did, however, receive last year's one-time emergency ambulance aid as an ambulance license holder.
Senators who spoke in support cited rural EMS and fire finance challenges and the potential efficiency gains from consolidation. "This is a very innovative piece of legislation that will help us make sure that every Minnesotan knows when they call 911 there will be an answer and help on the way," Senator Nelson said.
Committee discussion covered the bill's sections: definitions, the five-year levy averaging for aid, certification and payment timelines (the commissioner certifies aid before August 1, with payments on the following July 20), and appropriation language. The bill requires districts with fewer than six years of levy history to use a one-year look-back for calculation.
Action: the A2 amendment was adopted by the committee and Senate File 10-28 "as amended" was laid over for consideration in the omnibus tax bill.
The bill will continue to be discussed as it moves through the omnibus process; committee members indicated interest in aligning the aid mechanics to discourage levy gaming and to ensure districts without levy history have a clear transition path.
