Illinois bill would allow tax hikes for public safey. Would it help Highland rehire EMTs?
A new bill in the state legislature might address the problems that caused Highland to lay off some of its first responders this year.
State Rep. Charlie Meier (R-Okawville) has filed a bill that increases the amount a district can levy for emergency services. It also allows the districts to charge fees not exceeding the reasonable cost of the service for ambulance services rendered outside the district, and removes a provision setting fees at a certain dollar amount for more flexibility.
Meier filed the bill back in October, before Highland city leaders announced that their contracts with neighboring districts would end and they would be laying off several EMS workers. The other districts had ended their contracts because Highland asked them to increase their tax levies; Highland was maxed out at the amount it could levy, but thanks to reduced payments from Medicare and Medicaid, the city was losing money on its ambulance services, according to city leaders.
House Bill 4179 would amend the Emergency Services District Act to increase the total taxing authority of emergency service districts from .6 percent to .8 percent, and increase the tax rate for current rescue squads from .2 to .4 percent. The ambulance service levy limit remains at .4 percent. It removes the fee caps of $250 per hour and $70 per hour per ambulance worker, while retaining the requirement that fees should be equal to the reasonable cost of service.
However, City Manager Chris Conrad said Meier’s bill would not have helped Highland’s EMS problem because the bill is specific to ambulance service districts, which are separate from municipal and fire protection districts. Fire protection districts tend to be more rural and can levy up to .3 percent, he said, while municipalities, which tend to be more urban, levy up to .25 percent.
“The statutes recognize the difference between providing these services in rural areas vs. urban,” Conrad said. “So this is the legislature taking note that it costs more to provide the same service in rural areas vs. urban.”
Conrad said the problem really lies with the federal reimbursements for Medicare and Medicaid, as the amounts are below the cost of service and thus the remainder have to be made up from property taxes. He said many municipalities are giving up public ambulance services and contracting out to private companies.
“As our population ages and each service sees their call volume of Medicare and Medicaid patients rise, it is becoming impossible to cash-flow the services,” he said. “This issue has been seen for years in the more rural areas that tend to be higher average age, but is creeping toward more urban areas as our population as a whole is aging.”
Conrad has said the city leaders were committed to keeping a public ambulance service, which is why they took the route that they did. But even if Meier’s bill wouldn’t have helped Highland’s EMS, he said, it’s a good idea to support ambulance service districts.
“It really is a pretty good piece of public policy,” he said. “It gives local voters the ability to answer a problem that has been created at the federal level. I think that is why the ambulance service districts have received such a tremendous amount of bipartisan support.”
