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Statement by County Executive Isiah Leggett on Council Action on the Emergency Medical Transport Fee
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- For Immediate Release: 11/25/2008
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It is unfortunate that the County Council did not approve today the Emergency Medical Services Transport fee to strengthen our Fire & Rescue Service at no added cost to County residents.
I am confident, however, that this proposal will be adopted, sooner or later, because of our $500 million budget shortfall and the need for more resources to be dedicated to the increasingly critical needs of our Fire & Rescue Service.
I will continue to keep the proposal before the Council.
If we fail to implement an EMS Transport fee, our options will be to increase taxes further – which I have said I will not do -- take resources away from other critical County needs, or slow the pace of needed improvements in our emergency medical services.
We must keep the Montgomery County Fire & Rescue Service (MCFRS) world-class. We must continue to serve everyone in need, regardless of ability to pay.
The proposed Emergency Medical Services Transport Fee strengthens our Fire & Rescue Service at a time of tight budgets at no additional cost to County residents. It will bring in $14 million a year and $200 million over ten years from money already being paid to health insurance companies, Medicare and Medicaid.
One hundred percent of the net proceeds of the EMS Transport Fee will go by law to strengthen and enhance the MCFRS. And nearly all of our neighboring jurisdictions either have an EMS Transport fee -- with no evidence that it deters anyone from calling for needed emergency medical transport assistance, no evidence that health insurance premiums have gone up because of EMS charges, and no evidence that such fees have hurt volunteer efforts in any of the jurisdictions that have implemented.
Our current economic challenges mean hard choices. This shouldn’t be one of them. We can meet critical Fire & Rescue Service needs at no added cost to County residents – just as our neighboring jurisdictions are doing. They are using these funds to provide better service and save lives. We should do the same – and we will.
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