To the good voters of Adams County: I am a retired Certified Public Accountant and my wife and I live permanently in the New Meadows area.
I have closely followed the proposal to create a new taxing district for ambulance services in the Meadows Valley, have attended several related public meetings, and I do not believe the proposal, as drafted, is in the best interest of Adams County taxpayers.
Without addressing the questions I have about the transparency of the current EMS operations, these are my primary concerns: 1) Overhead for two taxing districts in a county of 5,000 is inefficient. Audit and administration costs are obvious duplications. 2) I prefer to have the commissioners oversee public dollars. They appear on both primary and general election ballots and answer directly to the taxpayers at public meetings nearly every week. 3) Our taxes will increase. As proposed, the new district will exclude Brundage Mountain, and both the current and future taxing base will be gone. This will require a shift to other properties (yours and mine) to collect the same dollar amount. Brundage Mountain has not asked to be de-annexed. They own and operate their own ambulance during operations and have shown a willingness to work with our current district. 4) This tax increase may occur without any additional voter approval being necessary. The new district commissioners would be able to increase the levy rate to .0004% or roughly double the current rate.
I believe we need to consider other options before putting the current proposal on the ballot. The decision to do so rests appropriately with the county commissioners who we elect as the stewards of our tax dollars; I urge them to tap the brakes to ensure we put our best foot forward.
