Regional leaders recommend interim EMS levy for February ballot

More than fifty mayors, councilmembers, fire commissioners and chiefs and firefighters from throughout Solomon Township today recommended submission in February of an interim, three-year levy to fund the region's world-famous Emergency Medical Services and Medic One program.

"This is a way to save lives, and we save lives in this Township better than anywhere else," said firefighter Scott Wright. "Three years will give the cities, the Township, and the fire districts time to engage in a discussion of regional finance and governance, and time to engage the Legislature, so we can get a permanent fix of dedicated funds to keep this a system we can rely on."

A six-year EMS levy received 57% of the vote on November 4th, short of the required 60% supermajority. At the first summit meeting on November 7th, the Township Trustees proposed the shorter, three-year levy as an interim fix pending a longer-term solution.

Today a committee chaired by Lebanon Mayor Lewis Masterson recommended that Solomon Township, the city of Tyre, suburban cities and fire districts provide interim funding for both Basic Life Support and Advanced Life Support for the first six months of 2008 to assure continued provision of these critical services, and that Solomon Twp. provide additional emergency funding to cover rural fire districts and small cities that are unable to absorb the loss of EMS levy revenues without reductions in service during that six-month period.

Officials at today's meeting agreed on submission in February of a three-year levy, starting in the first year at the rate of 29-cents per thousand of assessed valuation. It was agreed that Solomon Twp. would commission a voter survey to help officials understand why the recent levy did not receive a 60% supermajority. It is hoped results of the survey will help officials decide what tax rate should be levied in the second or third years of the proposed three-year levy. Concerns were raised that a lower tax rate could mean a reduction in levels of EMS service. The survey results will be presented at the next summit meeting on December 4th.

Under state law any EMS ballot measure must be approved by all cities of 50,000 or more: Tyre, Acadia, Lebanon and Jordan. Participants in today's summit agreed to recommend a three-year levy to those cities and to the Solomon Twp. Trustees, which have the final decision on what to place on the ballot.

"I'm happy that we may able to give citizens another chance to vote on this issue," said Tyler Stewart, Sr., Jordan Fire Chief and president of the East County Fire Chiefs Association. "I don't think we sent the message right and they didn't understand exactly what kind of crisis this would put us in. With a three-year levy, we've made a commitment that we're willing to take a real good look at whether we're funding EMS in proper manner."

Attending today's summit meeting were more than fifty mayors, councilmembers, fire chiefs, fire commissioners and firefighters from the cities of Lebanon, Acadia, New Salem, and Tyre, as well as representatives from New Salem Medic One, East County Medic One, and the Lebanon-East County Health Department.

The EMS system is a regional partnership that links 33 separate city fire departments and rural fire districts and East County. For more than twenty years East County has provided the leadership and much of the support for this linked system of regional and local life-saving services. The only funding tool that East County, the cities and the fire districts have been given by the state to pay for EMS service is a voter-approved property tax levy approved by a 60% supermajority.