Montgomery County Executive Ike Leggett is making a late push for county ambulance fees, saying the estimated $14 million they would bring in would help the county avoid making painful cuts to crucial county programs.
But county council members who oppose the measure said they’ve been able to craft a better budget without the fee, which would charge upward of $700 per ambulance transport.
The council was set to finalize its budget Thursday, but put that off until Tuesday pending word from the state on whether it will allow the county to waive $80 million for schools in next year’s budget.
Leggett unsuccessfully pushed the ambulance fees in last year’s budget. He has argued that jurisdictions in the area have implemented the fees with no noticeable effect on public safety and the fees would be charged to insurance companies and the federal government.
No county residents would ever have to pay the fee, according to Leggett, and low-income non-county residents could have the fee waived if they couldn’t afford it and weren’t covered by insurance.
In a recent memo to the council, Leggett said it would be “neither prudent nor justifiable in these trying fiscal times” to forgo the ambulance fee revenue as the county struggles with a more than $550 million budget gap.
He added that he’d “exhausted virtually all reasonable options available” to trim the county’s budget over the last three years and said next year’s budget process will be “even more daunting” because the county will likely face a $370 million projected shortfall.
Leggett listed some of the county council cuts to his proposed budget that could be funded if the ambulance fee was enacted, including money for affordable housing, money to replace aging emergency medical services equipment and money for a minority-health initiative.
Council President Phil Andrews, D-Gaithersburg/Rockville, said the county council had carefully crafted a budget that made necessary cuts without lessening the county’s safety net and including an ambulance fee. As of Tuesday, the council’s spending for the next fiscal year was $10.4 million less than Leggett’s proposed budget.
And Councilman Mike Knapp, D-Germantown, said, “I appreciate the [Leggett] letter, it’s always good to have information. But we’re going to make the budget.”
