Proponents, Critics Agree Ems Program Needed Two Sides Disagree On How Program Should Be Managed

(From For the Record, September 11, 1998): Tax facts wrong: Spokane city taxpayers would pay 50 cents per $1,000 of their assessed property value for the first year of a proposed six-year emergency medical services levy on Tuesday’s ballot. The rate then is scheduled to drop to 42 cents per $1,000 thereafter. An explanation of the payment schedule on page A7 of Monday’s Spokesman-Review was incorrect.

Proponents of continuing Spokane’s emergency medical services levy say public safety will be jeopardized if the measure fails at the Sept. 15 primary election ballot.

The levy currently pays the salaries of 36 of the Spokane Fire Department’s 46 paramedics.

If voters turn down the $22 million levy those paramedics probably will be laid off, said Chief Bobby Williams of the Spokane Fire Department.

Another option would be to resubmit the measure for another vote.

Layoffs could be devastating to public health, according to physician James Nania, medical program director for Spokane County’s emergency medical services.

The paramedics are firefighters trained in advanced life support who respond to medical emergencies within the city limits from heart attacks to car wrecks.

“Their actions make the difference between life and death on a daily basis in our city,” Nania wrote in a letter to The Spokesman-Review.

The survival rate of Spokane heart attack patients treated by paramedics has nearly doubled - to about 25 percent - since the Spokane Fire Department began adding paramedics a little more than 20 years ago, said Rich Kness, the department’s medical services officer.

Even critics say emergency medical services are necessary. But some people believe the program should be evaluated more closely.

Spokane resident and city budget critic Dick Adams claims the EMS program is inefficient. The ballot measure also will mean a tax increase, Adams said.

“The problem is it’s an emotional issue,” he said. “It’s like when school officials say, ‘Vote yes for the kids.’ You do it even if you don’t know what you’re voting for.”

The measure needs 60 percent approval to pass, and at least 20,400 voters must turn out for the election to be valid.

Spokane taxpayers have been paying for the EMS program since 1980, when they approved the levy for the first time. It has passed at the polls the other two times it has been up for renewal - in 1986 and 1992.

The service is becoming more critical because the Spokane Fire Department is responding to more and more medical calls, Williams said.

Since 1980, calls to the Fire Department for medical help have quadrupled, from 3,900 in 1980 to more than 16,000 in 1997.

Spokane’s aging population has contributed to the increase, as has the area’s high poverty rate, Williams said.

People who can’t afford to go to the doctor or hospital for routine care or minor emergencies instead call 911, he said.

Dispatchers then send a fire truck, often with a paramedic on board, to check on them.

Adams questioned why paramedics are dispatched to medical calls on hook-and-ladder trucks and fire engines. The large vehicles are incredibly expensive to operate and replace, he said.

It would make more sense for paramedics to drive so-called “squads” - which are smaller, specially equipped trucks - to medical calls, he said.

Sending out the big rigs is necessary because the paramedics are firefighters, too, Williams said.

Dispatching them on hook-and-ladder trucks and engines allows them to respond to fires from medical scenes if need be. That saves precious response time in many cases, he said.

Adams also criticized the measure for raising taxes.

State law allows cities to charge as much as 50 cents per $1,000 of assessed property value to pay for emergency medical services levies.

Spokane is charging taxpayers a little more than 43 cents per $1,000 this year, the last in the current EMS levy cycle. That means the owner of a $115,000 house is paying about $49.45 to fund the levy this year.

If voters decide to continue the levy for another six years, the rate will jump to 50 cents per $1,000 for 1999, according to Fire Department figures.

That would cost the owner of a $115,000 house $57.50 in 1999.

The rate is scheduled to be reduced to 42 cents per $1,000 for the remaining five years of the levy, according to the Fire Department.

This sidebar appeared with the story: LEVY FACTS The emergency medical services levy on the Sept. 15 primary election ballot would raise more than $22 million over six years. Money from the measure would pay the salaries of 36 of the fire department’s 46 paramedics, as well as equipment costs. If the proposal passes, city taxpayers would be charged 50 cents per $1,000 of their assessed property value for the life of the levy.