Medic One levy lift passing by wide margin in early returns Tuesday night
A levy lid lift to fund Medic One, Thurston County’s tiered, emergency medical service system, was passing in early returns Tuesday night.
The current Medic One levy stands at 28.9 cents per $1,000 in assessed property value. The levy increase, which will eventually restore it to 50 cents per $1,000 in assessed value, had 63.3% approval in the first round of ballot counts Tuesday night. More votes will be counted in the coming days.
County officials asked voters to lift the levy by about 6 cents in 2022 and allow 3-cents increases each year through 2027. Eligible low-income homeowners who are 61 and older, veterans and people who are disabled are exempt from the increases.
The Board of County Commissioners initially approved adding the levy issue to primary ballot in April, but a final ordinance was adopted on May 4. Program director Kurt Hardin warned the board then that the system would start to see the impacts of a budget shortfall by 2022 if the levy increase failed.
“The early returns are looking promising, and we are pleased that voters in Thurston County see the value of Medic One and EMS in the county,” Hardin said Tuesday night. “We are still in early returns and we are waiting for election results to be certified.”
The county will certify the election results on Aug. 17 after additional ballot counts. Auditor Mary Hall estimates about 10,000 more ballots from county drop boxes have yet to be counted and mail-in ballots postmarked today are still on the way.
Only 40,000 ballots, amounting to 20.4% turnout, were counted Tuesday night.
The Medic One system integrates 12 independent fire departments, two ambulance companies, hundreds of EMS providers and two hospitals, Hardin said.
The system allows for a layered response to EMS calls, of which there were 33,201 in 2020, Hardin said. He added current trends indicate there will be over 36,000 EMS calls this year.
“A lot of what Medic One does is provide the resources for those frontline EMS first responders that are out there,” Hardin said.
The shortfall would have mostly fallen on basic life support, impacting fire agency staff and response times, Hardin said in April.
A county presentation elaborates on the impacts, indicating the system would have had to defer modernization and replacement of medical equipment, cancel deployment of an eighth medic unit, reduce financial support to fire agencies and reduce the citizen CPR training program by 64 percent.
With the proposition approved, the levy will be restored to a level approved by voters in 1999. In 2000, the levy was $5.7 million with a voter approved rate of 50 cents per $1,000 in assessed property value, the Olympian previously reported.
Over the years, this rate has been driven down due to taxable values outpacing the legally allowable tax increase, Hardin said in April. Meanwhile, call volumes have grown, and equipment and medical costs rose 5% annually over the past 10 years, he said.
From 2008 to 2019, the Medic One budget increased from $8.22 million to $14.05 million while revenues have only increased from $8.35 million to $11.10 million, Hardin said.
To make up for the difference, Medic One has been tapping its fund balance. Without the levy lid lift, the balance would have dropped to $2.4 million next year, the minimum amount the program is required to maintain, Hardin said.
This would have resulted in a budget reduction of $211,301 in 2022 and $4.5 million in 2023, he said.
Proponents for the levy lid lift argued the proposition would restore the levy in a reasonable manner over six years, according to the county voter pamphlet.
Opponents argued the increase over six years is unjustified and unnecessary. Instead, they called on the county to re-submit a single-year levy lid lift, according to the pamphlet.
This story was originally published August 3, 2021 at 8:14 PM.
