News

Wis. Village Mulls Ambulance Fee for Non-Profit Agencies

KELLY SMITH

09/22/2011

Village of Dousman - Village officials are trying to arrange a special meeting of the Village Board next week to discuss imposing fire and ambulance service fees on about a dozen tax-exempt or not-for-profit institutions in the village.

The purpose of the fees is to help the Dousman Fire District recover the costs of a relatively high number of emergency medical responses to such institutions, particularly those that provide medical care and services to senior citizens.

Village President Jack Nissen said Village Attorney John Macy has advised him that state law permits municipalities to establish fire and ambulance service fees that can be imposed on not-for-profit organizations or tax--exempt institutions including schools, churches, service clubs, and not-forprofit or tax-exempt facilities that provide care for senior citizens.

Nissen said the village has a disproportionally high number of such facilities because it provides municipal sewer and water services and is centrally located between Oconomowoc, Delafield, Summit and Wales.

Since the facilities are often not required to pay real estate taxes, they do not share in providing the financial support for the fire district. Furthermore, the Fire District often cannot recover the cost of providing services to individuals who are residents at the facilities because of either federal Medicaid regulations or limits on insurance reimbursements. Nissen said village and Fire District officials have discussed for several years how to establish an equitable fee system for the institutions.

He said Macy was asked to research the issue last month during a meeting where elected officials from the villages of Dousman and Summit and the Town of Ottawa discussed a proposal to merge the Dousman and Summit fire districts.

"The issue has been simmering on the back burner for a number of years. The discussion of a possible consolidation has moved it to the front burner," Nissen explained.

Nissen said a special meeting of the Village Board is necessary in an effort to reach some decisions on the fee system before a meeting of elected officials of Dousman, Summit and Ottawa scheduled for Oct. 4 regarding a proposed merger of the Dousman and Summit Fire districts.

The Dousman Village Board has not yet endorsed the proposal because it could raise fire protection costs in the village by about $55,000 a year over a 10-year period. The increase is the result of a proposed formula for funding the consolidated department that requires the village to pay more because of the number of fire and ambulance calls.

Imposing the fee would increase revenues that could be used to offset the additional costs created by the new formula.

"But regardless of what happens to consolidation, the fee structure may be necessary because the Village of Summit and the Town of Ottawa want a new formula for the Dousman Fire District. Right now, they feel they are subsidizing the calls in the village to the not-for-profit and tax-exempt institutions," Nissen added.

Each of the "owners" of the Dousman Fire District, the villages of Dousman and Summit and the Town of Ottawa, contribute to the district based on the equalized assessed valuations of the their communities. Ottawa and Summit pay the largest proportion of the costs even though Dousman - because of the number of tax-exempt or not-for-profit institutions - has the highest number of calls, according to Nissen.