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House Co-Sponsorship Memoranda
House of Representatives
Session of 2023 - 2024
Regular Session
MEMORANDUM
| Posted: | December 16, 2022 01:39 PM |
|---|---|
| From: | Representative Brad Roae |
| To: | All House members |
| Subject: | EMS Legislation |
| Property tax increases are the only legal way that most municipalities can help pay for the costs to fund their local EMS services and I want to provide other options. My proposed legislation would give municipalities three additional options:
Currently municipalities have just one option. They can charge 2 mils on property taxes to fund EMS. That option would remain so they would have three options to choose from. This could be a 50-page memo explaining it in full detail, but the bottom line is without municipalities contributing financially to their EMS providers many will soon not have EMS providers. Higher wages, more expensive health insurance, a doubling of diesel fuel prices, huge price increases for ambulances and repair parts, higher medical supply costs, higher utility bills, etc. is resulting in the expenses exceeding the revenues. In many areas Medicaid and Medicare pays for over 3/4 of all ambulance calls and those rates are lower than what the costs are. They make money on calls covered by people with employer-based health insurance but those are only about 1/4 of the calls. Many EMS organizations are now burning through their reserves accumulated over decades and will soon be insolvent. Things like EMS, fire, police, streets, parks, etc. are municipal functions and most municipalities fund all of those things, except EMS. Most municipal budgets are right at revenue and expenses being equal. Rather than forcing them to increase property taxes to save EMS, we should make these other two options legal. I would greatly appreciate your co-sponsorship of this legislation. |