Quorum Court To Decide Ambulance Fee

BENTONVILLE — Benton County’s Quorum Court is to vote on a proposed $85 fee for rural ambulance service, but one justice of the peace wants the court to consider a property tax increase as an alternative.

Kurt Moore, who represents District 13, said he will suggest an option that would increase the county’s road millage as a way of partially funding ambulance service.

“What I’m thinking is we could maybe look at a hybrid formula,” Moore said. “Have a lower fee, maybe $40, and make up any shortfall by adjusting the road millage.”

The county’s Finance Committee recommended imposing an $85 annual fee on rural households to pay for ambulance service at its Sept. 3 meeting. The Committee of the Whole voted to send the measure to the Quorum Court for action at the court’s September meeting, which was rescheduled to 6 p.m. tonight.

The fee proposal is an effort to resolve the question of how to pay for ambulance service to unincorporated areas of the county. The fee would be levied on residents of an emergency medical service district covering most of the unincorporated area of the county, on a per household basis. It would raise about $1.2 million, according to Sarah Daniels, the county’s comptroller.

Residents of the area served by the Northeast Benton County Fire Department already pay a $100 annual fee for ambulance service and would not be subject to the new fee.

County officials have agreed to pay the seven municipal fire departments that provide ambulance service in the proposed district — Bella Vista, Bentonville, Gravette, Pea Ridge, Rogers, Springdale and Siloam Springs — about $942,000 for 2014. The estimated cost increases to about $1.1 million in 2015 and 2016.

The proposed fee would be subject to a referendum effort if residents of the district oppose it, George Spence, county attorney, told the Quorum Court. The county needs a 60-day period for the referendum effort before the end of the year. If there’s no opposition, or if any challenge fails, the ordinance creating the district and setting the fee would take effect.

Moore said increasing the county’s tax would benefit cities as well, since revenue is divided between the county and the city in which it is collected. Rogers, Bentonville and Siloam Springs would see the greatest benefits because state law gives those cities 90 percent of the tax collected inside their city limits. Other cities in the county receive 50 percent of the tax.

Daniels estimated increasing the county’s road millage by 1.1 mills would provide the county with about $1.8 million in additional revenue. The amount would vary according to property valuation and collection rates, Daniels said.

If the millage were increased by 1.1 mills, Daniels said, Rogers would receive about $1.2 million, Bentonville would receive about $942,000 and Siloam Springs would receive about $200,000. Daniels said Bella Vista would receive about $270,000 if the tax were increased to the maximum. Springdale would receive about $65,000, Pea Ridge about $28,000 and Gravette about $15,000 from such an increase.

Moore said the benefit to the cities could be a bargaining chip for the county in negotiating a lower direct cost for ambulance service to the rural areas.

“This is still in the embryonic stage, but that’s something the county judge would be tasked to do,” Moore said.

Spence said the Quorum Court can approve the EMS district and fee and continue discussing alternatives. If the Quorum Court chooses to adopt an alternative funding method after the EMS district is approved, the court can amend or repeal the ordinance.

Moore said the tax increase doesn’t have to derail the plan to establish an emergency medical service district and impose a fee. It could, however, reduce the fee if the county and cities can agree, or if the county chooses to increase the tax on its own merits.

Tom Allen, justice of the peace for District 4 and chairman of the county’s Finance Committee, said he doesn’t favor any increase in the county’s road millage at this time. He said he doesn’t think using an increase in the millage to indirectly fund ambulance service is the approach the county should take.

“I’ve come down to asking ‘What does this do for us that’s better than what we have now?’” Allen said. “I just can’t find many ‘pros’ to it. It gives a cash windfall to three cities that didn’t ask for it. It doesn’t look wise on our part, I think, to raise the road millage when we don’t have any reason for it.”

Allen said he also dislikes the convoluted nature of the proposal. He said he thinks the county should be cautious about raising its millage rate to the maximum allowed without a demonstrated need.

“With the fee, it’s pretty clear-cut that the ones getting the service are the ones paying for it,” he said. “We can’t legally spend money from the road millage on anything else so we have to go through this process of reducing the transfer from the general fund by an equal amount. It just seems like a complicated way to pay for this.”

“We would also have maxed out our road millage if we take it to 3 mills,” Allen said. “There might be some emergency situation where having that option would benefit the county. It hasn’t happened in the past but we don’t know what might happen.”

Shirley Sandlin, justice of the peace for District 8, said she hadn’t heard of the tax increase proposal. She said she can see arguments on both sides, but wants to have the matter discussed through the committee system before it’s considered by the Quorum Court.

“If we can bargain with the cities that might make it a little more palatable, otherwise I’m not sure that’s the route to take,” Sandlin said.

She said she doesn’t want the new idea to delay action on the EMS district and fee.

“It’s almost too little, too late at this time. I’ll be interested in listening to the conversation … , but I would prefer to see it come up at a Legislative Committee or Committee of the Whole before it gets considered by the Quorum Court,” Sandlin said.