North Jefferson County Ambulance
Proposition Safety
What it is: $21 million bond issue.
Vote needed to pass: Four-sevenths majority.
What it will cost: Chief Jamie Guinn said he did not have an estimate on how much the initial sale of $5 million to $6 million in bonds would affect the district’s current tax rate, which is 26.95 cents per $100 of assessed valuation.
“It depends on what the rates are at the time,” he said. “I’d say at the current rates, if we would need to sell the entire $21 million, at that time it would likely increase the tax rate by 23 to 26 cents.”
Using that rough estimate, the owner of a house valued at $150,000 by the county Assessor’s Office would pay $65.55 to $74.10 more per year in property taxes – once all the bonds are sold and until the first bond issues are paid off, when the rate would decrease.
Because the bonds would not be sold at one time, the tax increases necessary to pay them off would also be phased in, he said.
What it’s about: Guinn said passage of the issue would help the district deal with an ever-increasing call volume by allowing it to shift the cost of replacing big-ticket equipment items from the general operating budget, thus allowing the district to better pay for day-to-day items.
For instance, Guinn said, the first bond issue would be used to replace a 10-year-old ambulance.
“The cost of an ambulance has gone up over the last few years from about $150,000 to in the $260,000 range, and that’s before you equip it,” he said. “We need new heart monitors and lifts.”
In addition, Guinn said, the first sale of bonds would be used to retire the debt incurred by building House No. 2 at 1130 Gravois Road in the Murphy area in unincorporated Fenton.
“Retiring that debt would free up about $250,000 per year from our general operating budget that we can use for other things,” he said.
The district covers about 32 square miles in the Fenton and High Ridge areas.