Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Ambulance Funding topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Commissioners debate using foregone property tax and uncertain GEMT funds to support ambulance service
Summary
County staff proposed using up to 1% of foregone property tax to build ongoing capacity for ambulance operations (including the McCammon station); commissioners expressed concern about relying on one-year GEMT reimbursements and discussed the trade-offs between foregone and grant-like reimbursements.
County staff told commissioners the board can use 1 percent of foregone property-tax capacity for maintenance and operations and recommended directing some of that capacity to support ambulance operations and the recently added McCammon station.
"We are allowed by statute that we can take 1% of foregone for maintenance and operations," finance staff said while explaining how foregone would be applied to the ambulance fund. Staff estimated the 1 percent of foregone on a $290,000 foregone base would be about $24,090 annually and said that taking foregone would build that capacity into the base budget for future years.
Commissioners asked whether the ambulance district was relying on GEMT (federal-to-state ambulance reimbursement) and staff cautioned that the county had recorded only one year of GEMT receipts and that there is no statute guaranteeing annual amounts. "The GEMT funds worry me a little bit only because we've received it one year," finance staff said. The board discussed building foregone into the budget as a more reliable long-term approach while monitoring GEMT receipts.
Staff also noted the proposed levy-rate example: current ambulance-district levy was listed at about $22.23 per $100,000 taxable value and the proposed levy with foregone would be about $22.85 per $100,000, a change they said would produce a roughly 52-cent direct increase attributable to the ambulance item in the example staff provided.
