By Karen Russell Holmes
Contributing Writer
 
Bulverde/Spring Branch EMS may ask voters to approve a sales tax to help finance the expansion of EMS services and to offset projected budget deficits.

With only one EMS station providing emergency services to a rapidly growing 216 square-mile area, this year’s operating expenses were $1,089,486 at the end of September, or $80,000 less than revenues.

By 2011, the deficit is projected to be $400,000, according to Mechelle Salmon, executive director of Bulverde/Spring Branch EMS.

The Bulverde EMS unit was organized in 1978. In 1987, voters approved the formation of an emergency service district, which is a separate political entity that levies an ad valorem tax to help fund EMS services. The emergency service district is governed by a five-member board of commissioners who are appointed by the Comal County Commissioners Court.

The district’s current property tax rate is 5.7 cents per $100 valuation and generates more than 50 percent of the district’s revenues. The existing cap on the district’s ad valorem tax is 10 cents per $100 valuation.

At the end of September, ad valorem revenues were $637,486, while ambulance billings were $372,000.

But since 1997, Bulverde-Spring Branch EMS has seen a 235 percent increase in the number of calls.

Salmon projected that Bulverde/Spring Branch EMS will respond to 1,750 calls for emergency services this year, compared to 491 in 1997.

The board of commissioners hosted a town hall meeting last Thursday to discuss how to fund the growing need for more ambulance services and to offset projected deficits.
County Commissioners Jan Kennady and Jay Millikin, as well as newly elected Commissioner Donna Eccleston attended the meeting.

Three emergency service districts provide EMS services to western Comal County.

ESD 1 provides ambulance service only x  but overlaps Districts 4, which funds the Spring Branch Volunteer Fire Department, and District 5, which funds the Bulverde Area Fire Department.

At present, all three districts share facilities to keep overhead low.

However, Salmon said more funding is needed to ensure there are enough stations to provide a 10-minute response time from anywhere in ESD 1’s service area.

“We need EMS stations north, south, east and west of the EMS station in Bulverde,” she said. “But it costs $350,000 to build a new station.”

One solution would be to ask the voters for a one cent sales tax, said board president Jay Wetz.

“It’s a tight fight with a short stick,” Wetz said. “If the board recommends a sales tax, it would likely come up for a vote in the 2009 May election.”

But Salmon said a sales tax also would relieve home owners of some of the burden of funding EMS services.

 One percent of the current sales tax would generate around $260,000, according to Aubrey Mashburn of the Comal County Appraisal District.

The current sales tax in Bulverde is 8.25 percent, of which 6.25 percent is collected by the state, one percent goes to the city of Bulverde, one-half percent goes to the library and the remainder goes to the county.

A sales tax may not exceed 8.25 percent, and under state law, an emergency service district cannot collect a sales tax inside the city limits if the local sales tax is already at the 8.25 percent maximum.

Also, a 1 percent sales tax would have to be distributed among the three emergency service districts.

“One of the ultimate decision is how the sales tax would be distributed among the three districts,” Dalan Hargrave, Bulverde Volunteer Fire Department board member, said.
But Salmon said the three districts appear to want to work together.

“It was apparent during last Thursday’s meeting that all the districts want to work together and have one strategic plan,” she said.

Salmon said more town-hall meetings are planned.

For more information, call Salmon at (830) 980-9452, or e-mail msalmon@bsbems.