Montgomery County residents will not have to pay ambulance fees, for now.
The three Montgomery County Council members on a public safety panel unanimously voted Thursday morning to indefinitely postpone consideration of County Executive Ike Leggett’s plan to charge for ambulance transport.
Under Leggett’s proposal, the fees would range from $300 to $800 per ambulance trip, plus $7.50 per mile traveled.
His staff says insurance companies, rather than Montgomery County residents, would be billed for ambulance transport. People who live outside the jurisdiction, however, would be billed.
County finance officials said the fees eventually could generate $14 million a year for the cash-strapped county’s fire and rescue department, but volunteer firefighters threatened Tuesday that they would force a recall vote if the council approved the policy change.
Yard signs dot the county in protest of the fee and more than 1,100 residents have called County Council offices to oppose the bill, while only about 60 residents called to support it.
Council Vice President Phil Andrews, the most vocal opponent of the fees, leads the Public Safety Committee, which voted 3-0 to defer the legislation — and gave him the discretion to decide whether to bring it up again.
Andrews said he had the five votes necessary to kill the measure if it had gone before the council.
“Some opposed it because they think fees are a bad idea and will discourage people from calling 911, some because they don’t like this particular bill and some because they felt it’s not worth the effort when the public has weighed in and it’s clear they don’t want it,” Andrews said.
Leggett’s spokesman, Patrick Lacefield, said he thought the fees could be on the table again sooner than expected — maybe even by November, once council members have seen the budget cuts the county is considering to plug an expected $250 million budget gap.
“Our view is this is a nine-inning game,” Lacefield said. “We feel like we’ve made the case on the merits. Frankly, even some of the folks who have questions acknowledge that, at the end of the day, getting more money to fire and rescue without raising taxes is a good thing to do.”
Fairfax County, Prince George’s County and the District of Columbia all charge for ambulance transport.
