The Big River and North Jefferson County ambulance districts will ask voters on April 5 to approve bond issues that officials at those two districts say will ease the overall financial stress they’re facing.
Big River Ambulance is seeking a $17 million bond issue, while the North Jefferson County Ambulance District is asking for a $21 million bond issue. Both issues would require a tax increase.
Both ballot issues are named Proposition Safety and require a four-sevenths majority for passage.
Officials for both districts say they do not intend to sell the entire amount of bonds that would be allowed, but would phase in selling the bonds and, in turn, the increase in taxes required to pay them off.
Big River Ambulance
Chief Scott Fisher said he and the district’s board got together after voters rejected a 35-cent tax increase on the June 2020 ballot and figured a bond issue would be the better option in this uncertain economy.
“The problem is that all the things that our residents are seeing when they buy things are happening to us. Everything is costing more, and we have the same tax rate,” Fisher said.
If Proposition Safety passes, the district will sell between $5 million and $6 million in bonds immediately, which would allow it to replace aging House No. 1, 6321 Lorens Lane, in Cedar Hill, and replace some equipment.
“We took over House No. 1 in 1975,” Fisher said. “The amount of money that we’re putting into maintaining it from general revenue – which isn’t getting any smaller – we will be able to save and use elsewhere if we’re using the bonds to build a new facility.”
Fisher said the bond issue would allow the district to replace EKG monitors, which supposed to be replaced every five to seven years.
“Ours are at least eight years old, and they cost about $42,000 each. We have four,” he said.
Fisher said power lifts are also needed. “We’re the only district in the county that doesn’t have them. They lift patients from a stretcher into an ambulance. Due to the growing obesity problem in our country, they’re a necessity,” he said. “Having them will reduce our workers’ compensation claims. They cost $40,000 each.”
Fisher said the initial sale of $5 million to $6 million in bonds likely would raise the district’s current tax rate of 27.21 cents per $100 of assessed valuation by 6 cents.
The owner of a house valued at $150,000 by the county Assessor’s Office would pay $17.10 more per year in property taxes.
Fisher said the district likely will sell another $5 million to $6 million in bonds in five years, in part to renovate the other two houses at 4795 Tishomingo Road in Hillsboro and 6969 Wild Cherry Drive in House Springs.
The remainder of the bond issue, if needed, would be sold in about 10 years, he said, and at current rates would add a total of 18 cents to the district’s tax levy, or $51.30 more per year in property taxes until the first set of bonds are retired.
The district covers about 125 square miles that include House Springs, Cedar Hill, Morse Mill, Dittmer, Ware, Grubville and Byrnes Mill.
North Jefferson County Ambulance
Chief Jamie Guinn said the situation is similar in the North Jefferson County Ambulance District, which needs financial help to deal with an ever-increasing call volume.
“Before COVID, we were seeing increases of 10 percent of call volumes per year. Now it’s going up even more rapidly,” he said.
Guinn said he and the district’s board also decided a bond issue, rather than a tax increase, was the best way to get voter approval.
“We have several capital projects that a bond issue could address, which would free up money from our general operating revenue that is used on a day-to-day basis,” he said.
Guinn said the board plans to sell about $4.5 million in bonds in four increments over the next 20 years, but he did not have an estimate on how much the initial sale 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.
Guinn said the first bond issue would be used to replace needed equipment, such as 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.
“We built that house back in 2016,” Guinn said. “Retiring that debt would free up about $250,000 per year from our general operating budget that we can use for other things.”
The district covers about 32 square miles in the Fenton and High Ridge areas.