Understanding the Ballot Impact and Taxpayer Risk
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1. We are creating a new, stand-alone government — not simply funding an ambulance.

A YES vote creates an independent Emergency Services District with its own board, employees, budget, insurance, liabilities and taxing authority.

 

THE RISK:
Once created, the ESD must financially support itself. It does not automatically have a city, county or fire district budget behind it to absorb an unexpected expense, operating shortfall, major insurance increase or other financial problem.

That is very different from EMS systems operated as departments of larger municipalities or counties.

 

2. The proposed district would have substantial taxing authority.

The current Millstadt ambulance levy is approximately .09%. The ballot would authorize an ambulance-service tax of up to .40%. Illinois law specifically authorizes an ESD, after referendum approval, to levy an ambulance-service tax up to .40%. Illinois General Assembly

 

THE RISK:
The important question is not simply what officials say they expect to levy in the first year. It is what authority the governmental district will possess after it is created.

Once employees, wages, pensions, insurance, equipment and other recurring expenses are built into the organization, those obligations do not disappear during a bad financial year.

Ultimately, the district's taxpayers are the revenue base.

 

3. Liability belongs to the new district.

Ambulance operations carry real exposure: vehicle accidents, patient-care claims, employment issues, workers' compensation claims and other potential liabilities.

Illinois law specifically contemplates that a local governmental entity may have to protect itself through commercial insurance, self-insurance, joint self-insurance, reserves, claims services, legal services and risk-management expenses. Illinois General Assembly

 

THE RISK:
Insurance does not make financial risk disappear.

There can be:

deductibles • policy limits • exclusions • uninsured losses • legal expenses • rising premiums • workers' compensation costs • self-insured exposure

If a cost is not covered by insurance, the governmental entity still has to deal with that financial obligation to the extent it is legally liable.

For a stand-alone ESD, that entity is the district taxpayers created.

 

4. A stand-alone ESD does not have the same financial umbrella as EMS housed inside a larger government.

This may be the most important point on the page.

When EMS is a department of a city or county, the ambulance operation exists inside a much larger governmental organization.

That larger government may already have centralized:

insurance and risk management • legal counsel • human resources • payroll • accounting • purchasing • auditing • administrative staff • reserve funds • broader revenue sources

That does not mean a city or county can magically erase an EMS loss or that taxpayers are never responsible. But it does mean the EMS operation is not necessarily carrying every administrative and financial risk as a small stand-alone entity.

 

THE RISK :
The proposed ESD would have to build, purchase or contract for those protections itself.

So taxpayers aren't merely being asked:

“How much does it cost to run the ambulances?”

They are being asked to finance the governmental structure surrounding them as well.

 

5. A large liability or unexpected expense matters more to a small organization.

A $100,000 or $250,000 unexpected expense has a very different effect on a small EMS district than it may have inside a municipality or county with a substantially larger overall budget.

 

THE RISK:
A small district has fewer places from which to absorb a financial shock.

Its choices can eventually become some combination of:

reduce expenses • delay equipment purchases • use reserves • increase available taxes • increase fees/revenue • borrow where legally permitted

That is why the size of the proposed district, the size of its reserves and the adequacy of its insurance matter.

 

6. Today's staffing decisions can become tomorrow's taxpayer obligations.

The new district would assume responsibility for employee compensation, benefits, overtime, workers' compensation, unemployment, potential pension obligations and other employment-related costs.

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THE RISK:
These are not one-year purchases. Staffing decisions create recurring expenses.

Once a governmental organization develops a permanent cost structure, reducing those costs later can be considerably more

difficult than increasing a budget before the organization is created.

 

7. An appointed board will make these financial decisions.

The new ESD would be governed separately from the existing

ambulance organization and separately from the Fire Protection District.

 

THE RISK:
The board will make decisions involving staffing, compensation, insurance, contracts, equipment, reserves and taxation.

That makes the proposed district's financial controls, reporting requirements, policies, budgeting practices and board oversight extremely important.

And this gets directly into the work you've already done concerning policies, incident reporting, sexual-harassment reporting, financial controls, audits and governance. Those aren't side issues. They are risk-management issues.