HAVRE, Mont. (NMB) – The Hill County Commissioners have scrapped a plan to put a resolution on the November ballot that if approved, would have created a county wide ambulance district.
During a meeting on Wednesday morning, the Commissioners instead unanimously voted to put a separate resolution on the November ballot asking the voters to approve mill levies that they believe would allow current ambulance services to continue as is in the short-term.
The tentative plan, which is not yet officially on the ballot, would ask Hill County voters outside of the city of Havre to approve an eight mill levy.
Six of the mills would go to the Havre Ambulance service and two of the mills would go to the Rudyard ambulance service.
The six mill levy would provide around $172,000 annually, while the two mill levy would provide around $57,000.
These would be floating mills, so they could be adjusted for inflation.
Leaders from the city of Havre were critical of the proposal, which they viewed as only a stop-gap measure.
Discussions on creating an ambulance district began after Havre Mayor Tim Solomon sent a letter to the Hill County Commissioners earlier this year arguing the county wasn’t paying their fair share for Havre’s ambulance service calls outside of city limits.
Havre Mayor Tim Solomon has argued that despite 28 percent of Havre Fire Department ambulance calls coming outside of city limits in fiscal year 2019, the county only paid 5 percent of the subsidy.
The initial county-wide ambulance district proposal would have requested a total of 16.33 mills, but the County Commissioners said feedback they had received from rural residents indicated they were strongly opposed to the measure.
This story has been updated following clarification from Commissioner Mike Wendland on the wording of the tentative resolution that would be on the November ballot. It would be an eight mill levy for Hill County voters outside of Havre.
