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Medic 1 seeks higher Benton Harbor subsidy as city copes with cash constraints
Summary
Darwin Watson, chair of Medic 1, presented alternatives to rebalance a longstanding per-capita subsidy formula and asked member municipalities to cover more of a $2.5 million operating gap; the city manager and commissioners asked for call-location breakdowns and flagged limited city funds.
Darwin Watson, chair of Medic 1 ambulance services, told the Personnel Finance Committee that the regional EMS provider is operating at a deficit and presented a set of alternative funding formulas for member municipalities.
Watson said legacy arrangements left large disparities between members — some pay as little as $6 per capita while others pay up to $71 — and that Medic 1’s executive committee has proposed formulas that combine a base payment and variables such as call volume, population and taxable value. Options shown to the commission included base payments of $10,000, $20,000, $40,000 or $50,000 with differing percentage splits; the organization is…
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