The Washougal City Council is expected to vote Monday to place an emergency medical services levy on the ballot in November.
If approved by voters, the levy would cost property owners 50 cents per $1,000 of assessed property value annually from 2024 to 2029. The owner of a $500,000 home would pay $250 per year ($21 per month) for each of the next six years, according to the resolution that the council will consider.
Washougal residents approved the city’s most recent six-year EMS levy request, also set at 50 cents per $1,000 of assessed property value, in 2017.
“The Washougal EMS levy has been approved at 50 cents per $1,000 of assessed value since the election in 2004, and in subsequent renewals,” Washougal City Manager David Scott said. “The EMS levy is an important dedicated funding source for the EMS program and is necessary to maintain current service levels.”
The levy funds will be used only for emergency medical care, including related personnel costs, training and related equipment, supplies, vehicles and structures needed for the provisions of emergency medical care or emergency medical services, according to the city.
City leaders say the EMS levy is needed to “provide a safe work environment for on-duty personnel, and to provide needed emergency medical response personnel on-scene for any medical emergency the city of Washougal may have,” according to the draft resolution.
Washougal usually experiences a higher volume of emergency medical calls than Camas does, Scott said. So far in 2023, the Camas-Washougal Fire Department has received 45 percent of its calls from Washougal and 42 percent from Camas, with the remaining 13 percent being handled by East County Fire & Rescue, according to Ford.
An interlocal agreement that created the joint Camas-Washougal Fire Department in 2013 is set to expire at the end of this year. In anticipation, city and fire officials in Camas and Washougal have been trying to finalize a new agreement that would, ideally, maintain a joint fire department and provide the same level of fire and emergency medical services that Camas-Washougal residents are used to without straining Washougal’s more limited revenue resources.
“The (agreement) does not really affect the Washougal EMS levy renewal,” Scott said. “There has been an EMS levy in Washougal since 1978. Whatever service delivery method is deployed for EMS, the levy is an important, dedicated funding source in support of the EMS program.”
