BACKGROUND There are 8 ambulance providers in Benton County: 7 are owned and operated by cities: Rogers, Bentonville, Springdale, Siloam Springs, Gravette, Bella Vista, Pea Ridge. The eighth: NEBCO is a special emergency services district which provides fire and ambulance services to its constituents in the NE corner of Benton County. NEBCO’s membership fee is $100 per year and when raised, must be voted on by its members. All of the ambulance providers came to the county and said: We want a “long-term” solution to providing ambulance service in the unincorporated (“rural”) areas of the county. We want to be reimbursed for providing ambulance services to the rural areas of Benton County. We want to be reimbursed not only for providing ambulance services to the rural residents of Benton County, but for anybody who might be in the unincorporated areas of Benton County when he/she needs an ambulance. That would include places like Beaver Lake, folks driving on Hwy 412 between Siloam Springs and Springdale, portions of 540 that lie in the county outside of any city limits, and the list goes on. It does not matter whether the call came from a rural resident, a city resident or a visitor, the rural residents of Benton County should pay 100% of the cost associated with providing ambulance services to the rural areas of the county. The cities’ basis for this request is that the “Rural residents are not paying their “fair share” of the cost of ambulance services provided by the cities.” At least three cities: Rogers, Siloam Springs and Springdale have said: If you don’t give us money, then we will NOT provide ambulance services in the rural areas. (Of course, that would include not providing ambulance services to their own citizens if he/she happened to be in the county’s unincorporated areas.) Never mind the fact that rural residents spend hundreds of thousands of dollars each year in the cities –upon which city sales taxes are collected – all of which benefits the cities. (Rural residents obtain no benefit.) Even the county sales tax that is collected within the cities inures to the benefit of the cities to the tune of 85-90%. After considering what the cities wanted – 942,000 in 2014, 1.1 million in 2015 and 1.2 million in 2016 - the Quorum Court decided to levy an $85 “fee” (read “tax”) on each habitable structure located in the unincorporated (“rural”) areas of Benton County. Based on the number of such structures in the County, that “fee” is expected to generate $1.2 million for 2014.
Posted on: Thu, 23 Jan 2014 19:24:09 +0000