Top 10 Stories of 2014: No. 5; Would-be EMS tax hike rebuffed by voters—twice
Published 8:30 pm Friday, December 26, 2014
The powers that be at the San Juan Island hospital district will begin the new year with their back against the financial wall and pressing need for a fresh public relations campaign, or so it would seem, after voters rejected a would-be property tax increase to help fund the district’s emergency medical services division not just once, but twice in 2014.
The first proposal failed in February, despite a 55-percent approval margin. State law requires a 60-percent minimum for approval of an EMS property tax increase.
The district went back to the voters in November with a similar proposal, a 42-percent increase, from 35 to 50 cents per $1,000 of assessed value, but without the accompanying proviso floated eight months earlier that would have fixed that amount as a permanent mark and made the six-year EMS levy no longer subject to voter-approval.
Still, it didn’t fly, as only 50 percent of voters backed the measure.
The fall campaign proved contentious, with critics pointing to burgeoning income, expenses and salaries as evidence of an agency weighted down by discretionary spending and accusing the district of trying to create a compelling case by cherry picking numbers that had little bearing on the agency’s bottom line. In contrast, district officials maintained that rising costs, lowered insurance reimbursements and a persistent and unforeseen reduction in tax revenue, the result of a substantial drop in property values, combined to put an award-winning agency and its operations on shaky financial footing.
With the levy slated to expire in 2016, time is tight for determining the value of EMS and for the hospital district and its voters to find common ground.
