Sebastian County voters outside Fort Smith and Barling will be asked to decide whether to increase the $18 fee they pay each year for ambulance service to $43.
The Quorum Court voted Monday to put the proposed fee increase on the Nov. 4 general election ballot. The fee is collected once a year as a charge on personal property tax bills for residents living in the nine cities and unincorporated areas of the county served by Sebastian County Emergency Medical Service. About 14,000 residents paid the fee last year, according to county records.
Fort Smith and Barling residents are not included in the election because they are served by Fort Smith Emergency Medical Service.
The ordinance putting the proposed fee increase before voters included an amendment proposed by Quorum Court Member Shawn Looper of Huntington. It said money from the fee increase would be placed in a separate "Ambulance Improvement Fund" for "improvements, expansion or enhancements to the current ambulance service."
The amendment said the increased funds would not be used to replace the 2014 general fund allocation to the ambulance service of $620,000.
Quorum Court members Jim Medley, Donald Carter and Rhonda Royal, all of Fort Smith, voted no.
The ambulance service's budget this year is more than $1.3 million and is being funded from three revenue sources: $250,000 from the $18 ambulance fee, $500,000 from the billing for ambulance services and $620,000 from the general fund.
Voters will be deciding on whether to raise the fee by $25, which would bring in an additional $350,000.
Residents have been paying the $18 fee since 1986 when it was instituted to upgrade the county's ambulance service, which, at the time, had one ambulance operating part time and one crew.
Today, the service consists of two ambulances available around the clock, with two backup ambulances, and two paramedic crews.
Metro on 08/27/2014