Benton County Still Stuck on Ambulance Service

Friday, April 25, 2014

It makes sense that the Benton County Quorum Court's top legislative priority is getting the state to either take its prison inmates out of their jail or to promptly pay a proper, fair fee for keeping them.

It has been one of Arkansas' most chronic problems for decades: Convicted felons sentenced to state prison back up into county jails waiting for a prison bed to become available. Meanwhile, the counties end up paying the expenses for those inmates, who are presumably the responsibility of the state. To make matters worse, when the state does finally get around to "reimbursing" counties for their hospitality, it's at $28 per day per inmate, an amount far below what it actually costs local government to keep them.

What’s the point: Some Benton County Justices of the Peace don’t want to live by the same standards they expect from the state prison system.

It's a constant problem, one that ebbs and flows with the state's prison population. Currently, its high tide, with counties all over the state (including Benton County) pleading for relief.

We get it. The county government wants the state government do the right thing and pay the county fairly for the services it's providing.

That seems to be a reasonable approach, unless you're talking about ambulance service.

Some justices believe another legislative priority ought to passing a law to force cities to provide ambulance service to adjacent unincorporated rural areas for free. Perhaps what's good for the goose is not always what the gander wants.

For years, Rogers, Bentonville, Siloam Springs and Springdale have made ambulance runs into unincorporated areas of the county. Those cities never asked the county government to supplement the cost of providing this service on a 24/7 basis. They just did it.

But things changed. As the cities grew larger with more people and population to cover, providing a vital government service to an area that wasn't part of the cities became a burden. City officials said they'd have to have some financial help from Benton County, and the justices of the peace are looking for a way to provide it.

Making things a little more urgent, city representatives have said they can't continue making those runs if the county can't, or won't, help pay for it.

The justices tried one funding method: an $85 per year fee on households in affected rural areas. Voters rejected it, so the Quorum Court is still struggling with the issue.

It's pretty much that simple. Except that some county residents, not to mention justices of the peace, can't seem to get around the emotional and pointless arguments that have torpedoed constructive efforts to solve this problem.

Some, like justices Steve Curry and Shirley Sandlin, still think the cities ought to just take care of it like they always have. And if they won't, they want the state Legislature to make them do it.

Now let's be clear: We can't imagine the state Legislature doing such a silly thing. Why, it's no more fair to ask the cities to take on that burden without compensation than it is to expect counties to house state prison inmates at an unfair price.

While there may be some political benefit to some justices to blame the cities and declare their intentions to take the fight to Little Rock, there's no benefit at all to efforts to solve a very serious problem.

The quicker the justices accept that this is the county's problem, the quicker they'll be able to find a solution.

Commentary on 04/25/2014