Wednesday, May 27, 2009

Division of EMS tax OK'd by commission

Julia M. Dendinger News-Bulletin Staff Writer; jdendinger@news-bulletin.com

With a new EMS tax due be go into effect on July 1, the county commission on Wednesday approved the distribution of that revenue between the county and the municipalities.

In November, a countywide quarter of a cent gross receipts tax was approved for the operation of the county's regional emergency communications center and the county's emergency medical services.

That tax is anticipated to produce $1.2 million annually, with 60 percent or $720,000 for the communications center and 40 percent — $480,000 — to be put towards EMS.

The question was then how to distribute the funds between the county and the municipalities for their emergency medical services. The breakdown, based on population, gives the county 60 percent of the funds with the remaining 40 percent split between Los Lunas, Belen, Bosque Farms and Peralta.

All four municipalities submitted letters of support for the proposed distribution formula. Commissioner Georgia Otero-Kirkham made a motion to accept the distribution based on that support. Commissioner Don Holliday seconded the motion, and the commission approved the plan unanimously.

Of the projected $480,000 for EMS, the county will receive $288,000, Los Lunas will get 21 percent or $100,800, Belen will receive 16 percent or $76,800 and Bosque Farms and Peralta will share the remaining 3 percent or $14,400.

County Manager Eric Zamora cautioned that the population-based formula was derived from the anticipation of the tax bringing in a total of $1.2 million. "That total amount could fluctuate," he said. "It could go as low as $1 million and as high as $2 million."

If that amount fluctuates, it could mean a low of $400,000 collected for EMS to a high of $800,000 to be split between the county and the four municipalities based on the established percentages.

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