County Supervisors Take First Step To Get EMS Tax Levy On Ballot

The Mills County Board Of Supervisors has taken the first step in a process that could lead to Mills County residents voting on a tax levy in November to help fund Emergency Medical Services (EMS) across the county.

At its regular meeting Tuesday morning, the three-member board voted unanimously to a set a May 20 public hearing date for the first reading of a resolution that would declare Emergency Medical Services to be an “essential service” in Mills County.

Presently, EMS is not considered an essential service in Iowa, but county supervisors have the option of declaring EMS an essential service and bringing a referendum to voters to help fund EMS through a special property tax levy.

The board will be required to have three readings of the resolution before moving on to the next step in the process - establishment of an EMS advisory council. The advisory council will meet for approximately two months before making a recommendation on the services needed within the county and what the the language and funding amount should be on the measure put before voters. The maximum EMS tax levy that can be imposed by local counties is 75 cents per $1,000 taxable valuation. Based on numbers from 2024, the levy would generate over $850,000.

County Supervisor Jack Sayers, who introduced the motion Tuesday to set the May 20 public hearing date, noted that local communities are struggling to provide adequate EMS services.

“They’re having a tough time with volunteers, they’re having a tough time with funding,” Sayers said. “I believe that if we put this initiative to a vote and people understand that one day that you might call for help, you might call for an ambulance, and if they don’t have the funding or volunteers, they can’t show up because right now it is not an essential service. It’s not government-required for us to do it. This just assures they are there – they are able to help people in our community.”

Sayers said if the resolution is adopted by the board of supervisors, he would like to see all Mills County communities represented on the advisory board, including local EMS, fire, law enforcement and emergency management / communication center personnel. If the levy is passed, he also wants to make sure funds are distributed appropriately.

“The best way that we can handle that is by having individual districts in terms of response time and in terms of where people go so that the money collected in one area has to stay in that area,” he said.

Passage of the special EMS tax levy would require 60% voter approval.

If approved in November, the levy would likely be implemented at the start of the 2026-2027 fiscal year (July 1, 2026), but collection of revenue generated by the tax would probably be a year behind.