EMS levy will return to ballot

Spokane city officials aren’t taking any chances with the close vote on Tuesday’s emergency medical services measure.

Election returns counted through Wednesday showed the EMS levy had 83 votes more than the 60 percent required by state law for excess property tax levies. That was out of nearly 34,000 votes counted so far.

County election officials said as many as 13,000 city mail-in ballots are yet to be counted, leaving the final outcome up in the air until sometime next week.

As a result, the council has scheduled a special meeting for 3:30 p.m. today to consider a resolution and ordinance placing the EMS measure on the November ballot for reconsideration should it fail in the final primary count. The meeting will be in the council briefing center on the lower level of City Hall.

“We are moving forward with a contingency plan,” said city spokeswoman Marlene Feist.

The deadline for notifying the county auditor for the November ballot is Friday. The measure could be taken off the ballot if it wins approval in the primary.

At stake is $4.6 million annually that would go to finance the fire department’s 45 paramedic firefighters, plus other staff and costs associated with EMS.

Loss of EMS funding would result in fewer trained personnel for 911 medical emergencies, longer response times because of fewer crews and a greatly reduced ability of the fire department to provide advanced life support, officials said.

Under state law, the levy must be put up for a vote every six years. It was initially approved in 1980 at 25 cents per $1,000 of assessed valuation. The levy was reauthorized in 1986, 1992 and 1998. In 1992, the amount was increased to 50 cents per $1,000 of assessed valuation, the maximum EMS levy under state law.

That was also the amount sought in the reauthorization request on Tuesday’s ballot.

In the past the measure captured from 62 percent to 82 percent yes votes, and had been widely viewed as a popular tax program.

Returns counted Tuesday gave the measure just two more votes than the required 60 percent yes. The approval rate increased to 60.2 percent with the tabulation of 3,769 votes on Wednesday.

The closeness startled city officials.

“I am surprised,” Council President Dennis Hession said on Wednesday.

Hession said there was no organized opposition to the levy so it may have been a matter of voters not paying attention to it.

Fire Chief Bobby Williams said confusion over the new partisan primary balloting may have caused some voters not to cast yes votes on the nonpartisan EMS measure.

If the levy is not approved now or in November, Williams said that on “Jan. 1, we phase out of the paramedic business.”

In 1980, the fire department responded to 3,900 EMS calls. The number of calls shot up dramatically in subsequent years. In 2003, the department logged 18,400 EMS calls, or four times the number of fire calls.

In past years, public opinion surveys have shown that EMS is ranked as the second most important service provided by the city.

Dick Carson, chair of the Northwest Neighborhood Association, said he supported the measure in part because he’s been on the receiving end of EMS service three times. “It was a godsend to have it around,” he said. “People I talked to were pretty much in favor of it.”

However, Carson said any tax measure can be a tough sell.

Jerry Numbers, chair of the East Central Neighborhood Council, said he was surprised at the closeness of the vote. “It’s one of those things we never use until we need it.”

Councilman Al French said, “I think folks thought it was a new levy so there was confusion.”

Others said another measure on Tuesday’s ballot seeking a countywide tax increase for criminal justice and public safety may also have siphoned off some support.

The countywide measure seeking a tenth of a penny hike in the sales tax was winning approval at 52 percent yes. Unlike an excess property tax increase which requires a 60 percent supermajority, the sale tax measure needed only a simple majority to be enacted.

It is the second time this year county voters have raised their sales taxes. In May, voters approved three-tenths of a penny increase in the sales tax to pay for Spokane Transit Authority service. That increase takes effect Oct. 1, and boosts the sales tax from 8.1 to 8.4 percent. The criminal justice tax will make the sales tax in most parts of the county 8.5 percent.