City places EMS Levy on November ballot

The Spokane City Council on Thursday moved to cover its risk against the potential loss of Tuesday’s emergency medical services levy by placing the measure back on the November ballot for possible reconsideration by voters.

Council members voted 6-1 in favor of a second try at the levy should it fail in the final count from Tuesday’s primary election voting.

Councilman Bob Apple voted no because he said he was willing to accept the verdict of the voters. “Voters speak. I’m here to listen. If they’ve made a decision, I’ll live with it,” he said.

The city ballot measure would cost property owners 50 cents per $1,000 of assessed valuation annually, or $50 on a $100,000 home. The state requires reauthorization every six years. Spokane voters first approved an EMS levy in 1980, and renewed it in 1986, 1992 and 1998.

Fire Chief Bobby Williams told the council the loss of the levy would restrict the department’s ability to provide paramedic service, and virtually end the department’s ability to deliver advanced care in life-threatening emergencies.

The city’s private ambulance provider probably could provide advanced life support, but its response times would be longer and the cost of ambulance service for all types of calls would increase, he said.

Deadline for notifying the county to reserve a spot on the November ballot is today, although the measure would not appear if it wins approval when the primary count is final next Friday, officials said.

Even as the council was taking action, the county auditor was tabulating more mail-in votes from Tuesday’s election. An additional 1,852 city votes showed the levy measure gaining on the “yes” side. The levy’s approval rate increased from 60.2 percent to 60.35 percent. That was an increase of 44 votes above the minimum 60 percent approval needed for passage. The “yes” side now stands at 127 votes above the 60 percent mark.

There are still as many as 11,000 mail-in votes left to be processed from city residents.

Work on the count has been slowed because voter confusion over the state’s new partisan primary balloting system led to a high number of mail-in ballots being marked improperly, which has slowed preparation of ballots for automatic counting.

City officials said Tuesday’s ballot measure was not a new tax, but a request to continue an existing tax.

Just in case voters misunderstood that, the council added language to the ballot title for November that would describe the levy on the ballot as being “for the continued provision of emergency medical services.”

Williams said the levy’s $4.6 million in annual funding goes for 45 paramedic firefighters, plus other staff and training associated with EMS. The department’s budget is currently about $26.5 million. EMS calls outnumber fire calls by 4 to 1. In 2003, there were 18,400 EMS calls.

Without the paramedic force, the department’s firefighting strength would be reduced since paramedics double as firefighters. Loss of the personnel could result in higher fire insurance rates, especially for commercial properties, Williams told the council. Citizen training in cardio-pulmonary resuscitation would be stopped.

Loss of the levy, Williams said, “would certainly have a devastating impact.”