The Colusa County Board of Supervisors remain in the hunt for a possible solution to the ambulance shortage that won’t entail the formation of a special assessment district.
Following the Nov. 9 release of a feasibility study, in which the board learned current ambulance services are financially unsustainable, consultant Scott Clough, of AP Triton, met again with local fire chiefs, county officials, and Sierra-Sacramento Valley Emergency Medical Services Agency, which manages ambulance services in Colusa, Butte, Glenn, Nevada, Placer, Shasta, Siskiyou, Sutter, Tehama, and Yuba County, to come up with possible deployment models to provide full ambulance transport services to Colusa County residents.
Officials said Tuesday that to form an ambulance assessment district (run by government employees) to deploy two 24-hour Advanced Life Support ambulances would be the most expensive of four options, with an annual expense to the taxpayers of about $2.7 million a year, less about $650,000 in annual transport revenue.
The board still has a lot of work ahead to choose a course of action to meet their statutory requirement to provide ambulance services, but they must also establish a revenue source, including the possibility that they will place a sales tax or parcel tax initiative before the voters on the June 7 primary ballot.
Currently, Enloe Medical Center is still subsidizing ambulance services, even after they cut back from one full-time and one part-time ambulance to just one 24-hour ambulance, at a loss of about $500,000 a year, officials said.
According to Clough, continuing to contract with a private provider for full ambulance services is the simplest option, with an annual cost of about $1.8 million.
“It has a high probability of success with the least impact to the local fire agencies,” Clough said.
The board, however, has not ruled out the possibility of contracting for one ALS ambulance with a private provider while contracting for two dedicated Basic Life Support Services through two fire departments.
The total cost for that option would be about $1.9 million.
Clough said with any option, expanding emergency dispatch at the Colusa County Sheriff’s Office is also recommended, at an additional cost of about $180,000 per year.
County officials said that a 1 cent sales tax increase could generate up to $2.5 million in revenue annually, although they also plan to look at what could be generated by an increase in the transient occupancy tax, as well as a special parcel tax.
“Really, the most feasible mechanism would be a sales tax,” Clough said. “While we looked at the others, we really did not think the occupancy tax would fulfill the need; the benefit assessment would be difficult to pass, and a parcel assessment is really not palatable to anyone.”
County officials said they expect to have additional information at their Jan. 18 meeting.
While Colusa County has a total of about $249 million worth of “taxable goods,” Chairman Gary Evans said he wants the administration to look at where sales taxes are generated first, before a sales tax increase is considered.
While fire chiefs estimate that the majority of sales taxes are generated by pass-through motorists, such as travelers on Interstate-5, Evans said he would be very concerned if local agriculture purchases of equipment and fertilizer were lost to counties that have lower sales taxes.
“Because it would be our businesses here that would be hurting if you do that,” said Evans, who feared farmers would go to Yuba, Sutter or Glenn counties, if it meant saving thousands of dollars on taxable items.
Colusa County Administrative Officer Wendy Tyler said the board must finalize a revenue mechanism before the March deadline to place a tax measure on the June ballot.
Any request for the public to support a quarter cent, half cent, or one cent tax increase would also require considerable public outreach if there is any chance for the initiative to succeed, Tyler said. ■