Floyd County Supervisors take first step toward declaring EMS an essential service

By Bob Steenson, bsteenson@charlescitypress.com

Floyd County supervisors took the first step Monday morning toward declaring emergency medical services (EMS) as an essential service in the county, potentially leading to a dedicated property tax or income tax surcharge to support ambulance services and related uses.

The board passed a resolution declaring EMS an essential service for the first time at its Monday meeting. The resolution will need to go through two additional readings and approvals at two separate meetings to become official, according to guidelines established by the Iowa Legislature last year.

Any eventual tax-based support would need to be passed by voters by a 60% margin. The first opportunity for such a vote will be the general election on Nov. 8.

Before taking action Monday morning, Supervisor Linda Tjaden asked Supervisor Roy Schwickerath the results of three EMS public informational meetings held recently in Marble Rock, Charles City and Nora Springs.

Schwickerath said the attendance at the meetings was small, but “everyone agreed it needs to be an essential service and there needs to be a funding source.”

There were concerns about using tax money, and people wanted to make sure that if a property tax or income tax surtax was added that the money would be spent for ambulance and related services, he said.

“I told them we already use tax money” for ambulance service, Schwickerath said. The $100,000 the county is paying AMR ambulance service in the current contract (the same amount Charles City is paying) and the amount it pays toward other volunteer services in the county is tax money.

He said that at the Charles City meeting a comment was made by a person who didn’t like the idea of using tax money to subsidize a private company.

But Schwickerath said he thought about that after the meeting.

“We use public money all the time to pay private companies for services,” he said. “We buy rock, we pay to pave roads.”

Schwickerath said there are still questions that need answering. For example, now the county and Charles City split the cost of subsidizing AMR. If an essential services tax is passed in the county, then that would be paid by all county residents, including Charles City residents, and Charles City might no longer pay an individual subsidy.

But the AMR ambulances are housed at the Charles City Fire Department and Charles City provides AMR’s offices at the fire station, “so that would all have to be worked out.”

Even if the supervisors pass the essential services resolution for the third time, it will still be up to the board whether to put a tax question on the ballot, including the type of tax and the amount, Schwickerath said, adding “This keeps our options open.”

The Floyd County Ambulance Commission has pretty much decided the options for ambulance service in the county for now are sticking with AMR and continuing to provide a subsidy to pay for service, or starting the county’s own ambulance service, likely through the Charles City Fire Department.

A request for information sent out to several area ambulance companies resulted in a response only from AMR.

Starting July 1, the city and county are now in the third year of a three-year contract with AMR, with both the city and the county providing $100,000 subsidies to AMR to help pay for services. The subsidy amount has gone up in each of the three years of the contract.

The city also recently remodeled a part of the fire station to provide office, storage and sleeping space for AMR staff, and the county provides dispatching service.

Last year the Legislature passed a law that outlines the process for counties to declare EMS an essential service, and opens up more ways to fund EMS, through a local option income surtax, a property tax or a combination of both.

If voters approve a funding mechanism by the required 60% or higher, that could be used as the subsidy to AMR and other existing county ambulance services, or for the city’s and/or county’s own ambulance service, or to help pay for services from some other ambulance company.

If the county proceeds with declaring EMS an essential service, a county emergency medical services system advisory council will be established to assess the EMS needs of the county and make a recommendation to the supervisors as to the annual funding amount that should be listed on the ballot.

Schwickerath said he wants to be ready to name the members of that advisory council as soon as the third reading of the essential services resolution is passed, because the supervisors will need to decide fairly quickly the amount and the type of tax if it wants to get it on the Nov. 8 ballot.

The Floyd County Ambulance Commission has a meeting today (Tuesday) at 5 p.m. in the City Council chambers at City Hall. On the agenda are “review of in-house ambulance service model” and “AMR service option estimates.”

Also at the supervisors meeting Monday, the board:

• Approved several temporary liquor licenses for vendors planning to set up along the RAGBRAI route through Floyd County on Thursday, July 28, with some of them subject to final needed paperwork.
• Affirmed the appointment by Charles City Mayor Dean Andrews of Scott Kendall as the rural representative on the Charles City Library Board.
• Approved a contract for $1,800 the first year and $5,985 the second year with a company to help the county improve its website, including making sure it is in compliance with Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) requirements. Included will be five hours per month of hands-on help for county employees.