City Adopting 2022-2023 Budget; Considers Taking Over EMS

The City of Glenwood is moving forward in setting its budget for the 2022-2023 fiscal year.

A public hearing at City Hall for the city’s proposed “maximum levy” has been scheduled for Tuesday, March 8, at 7 p.m. Approving the maximum levy is one of the first steps in the budget-setting process.

The “max levy” accounts for a significant percentage of the city’s total tax levy, which won’t be finalized until mid-late March. The “max levy” includes the base (8.10) levy and line items for Emergency, Liability, Property and Self-Insurance costs, FICA and IPERS and Other employee Benefits.

The “max levy” under consideration for 2022-23 is 14.53334, up from 14.24940 in the current fiscal year.  

“The increase we are seeing is on the other employee benefits,” Glenwood City Administrator Amber Farnan said. “That is due to the city exploring the option of taking over EMS (Emergency Medical Services). It’s an increased cost on the benefits side.

“Currently, the Glenwood Volunteer Fire Association runs EMS. If the city takes over, it would make them city employees and we’d be offering them benefits what we currently offer to our full-time employees,” Farnan said.

Taking on the EMS services would bring five full-time and three part-time new employees onto the city payroll, creating about $500,000 in additional costs.

Farnan said the biggest benefit of the city taking over EMS is that the service would remain available to Glenwood residents.

“We keep the great EMS service that we have and offer those employees a little bit better wage that they don’t have now,” she said. “It would be a big undertaking. The city already owns all of the equipment. We pay for the ambulances and we also pay for all fuel for the ambulances and medical supplies.”

Whether the city decides to take on EMS or not, Farnan said the budget will be impacted by rising costs in several areas.

“Unfortunately, as everyone else’s costs have gone up, our costs have gone up as well,” she said. “Insurance costs skyrocketed, fuel for our vehicles, energy costs are hitting really hard. We’re trying to be as fiscally responsible as we can, however, we do have to cover those additional costs as everybody does.”

As for EMS, the city would likely use some its federal American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds to subsidize EMS the first year.

“We are hoping to make it solvent,” she said. “The first year most likely would not be, which is why we would use ARPA dollars to help us along.

“After they would complete the first year as a government service, there’s certain write-offs we could apply for that the volunteer fire association can’t apply for because they’re not a government agency.”  

The city’s budget is required to be certified with the state of Iowa by March 31. Farnan said it’s possible the city will move forward with a “larger budget” that includes EMS funding even if a decision has not made on the matter by late March.

“It’s very possible we could go forward with the larger budget and then decide not to take on EMS,” she said. “It depends on what the council wants to do but I am budgeting for it because if we don’t, we wouldn’t have the extra funds needed.”

The city’s regular property tax valuation is projected to increase from $178,589,612 (current fiscal year) to $196,321,914.