RED OAK, Iowa — Here in Iowa, ambulances aren't automatically required to show up when someone calls 911. And on ballots last week, multiple counties offered making emergency medical services (EMS) an "essential service", but five didn't receive enough votes.
The counties' tax levies would have raised taxes between $60-to-75 per $100,000 of property value every year.
But since the levies failed to pass, city EMS departments in Guthrie, Page and Taylor counties will continue to self-fund. or receive money from the hospital its based out of, to operate.
"We wanted to entice people to get into EMS in those communities by paying for their education and paying for them to have equipment that is needed to be able to respond to calls and then put somebody on that truck," Ty Davison, Shenandoah's EMS director told Local 5.
Shenandoah is one of the largest cities in Page County, and the EMS department has to travel to surrounding, smaller cities to respond when someone calls 911, because those communities are often volunteer-based and don't have anyone on staff. That also means it will take even longer -- sometimes up to 40 minutes -- for an ambulance to arrive.
In 2021, Gov. Kim Reynolds signed a law leaving it up to the counties to vote on whether to raise property taxes to fund EMS instead of city departments self-funding or receiving money from the hospital its based out of, to operate.
Jan Beach-Sickels, Taylor County's ambulance director, said they struggle to have a full-crews all the time, and added that if people "want to continue to have EMS services in the county, they need to support this."
Taylor County said it's interested in bringing up a similar vote in future elections, while Page County told Local 5 News it's unsure.