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How much would the Washington County EMS levy cost you? Officials: about $52 a year for a $400,000 home
Summary
Officials told the committee the $3.5M levy would be a county property-tax levy redistributed by equalized value; presenters estimated roughly $52 per year for a $400,000 home, with municipal distributions returning most dollars to communities under the current model.
County staff and presenters told the Public Safety Committee the proposal is structured as a property-tax levy that would be redistributed back to municipalities based on equalized value and contract terms. "The $3,500,000 levy is a property tax," the County Executive explained during the fiscal overview, and staff noted that under current modeling about $2.025 million of that would be returned dollar-for-dollar to municipalities.
Presenters put the homeowner example on the screen: "For a home valued at $400,000, the average cost is $52 a year or 12¢ per thousand dollars, $4.25 a month," the chief public safety officer said. He also explained the proposal includes $500,000 for volunteer and paid-on-call departments and a county administration cap of $300,000 (10% under the package described). The presenters emphasized those amounts are included inside the $3.5 million figure and not additive.
Committee members raised concerns about display on the tax bill and whether participation by individual municipalities could create double-tax situations. Presenters said the levy is similar in structure to the road-and-bridge levy (an exception authorized by state statute), and that municipalities could sign contracts and receive funds back; if a municipality declined to participate and continued its own levy, that scenario could produce duplicative taxation locally, though presenters described ways contracts and adjusted levies could avoid that outcome.
The committee requested staff provide a clear fiscal appendix and rate-impact examples for different assessed values and a plan to show how redistribution to municipal budgets would operate before any final vote.
