Our View: Ambulances should be free if tax is approved

Supposing the proposed 1% general purpose sales tax is approved, there are two things local governments should do: make the county’s various ambulance services a public service and provide ambulance service for free.

Before anyone rushes to their keyboard to fire off an email to complain about this newspaper supporting a socialist cause, consider the following thoughts.

First, the fact we’re already subsidizing ambulance services and have done so for years shows it isn’t a viable private business in Sweetwater County. Before Sweetwater Medics, Vase Funeral Home also operated an ambulance service which received subsidies from the county to help cover its operations. Sweetwater Medics formed with the promise of having a paramedic on every ambulance and claimed they wouldn’t seek taxpayer subsidies to provide their services. However, shortly after Vase’s ambulances ceased operations, Sweetwater Medics approached the county commissioners and requested county subsidies as they would otherwise be forced to close up shop.

Why should our tax money be so willingly given to a private company to keep them afloat? Especially now that we’re being asked to pay an additional penny of sales tax for those subsidies and other emergency services. Should this tax get passed, the ambulance services should either be reorganized into a centralized department offered through the county or managed through the already-existing ambulance service board, with services offered through the cities similar to how fire and police protection already work.

If this tax comes to fruition, we shouldn’t have to pay for an ambulance ride. If we’re being asked to pay more to support emergency services, why shouldn’t we expect that part of the sacrifice coming with higher taxes? If we’re being asked to pay more in sales taxes, why shouldn’t we expect more in services offered by the cities and county? It’s already clear to us that privatized ambulance services do not work, and given the fact that this tax would bring in an estimated $17 million annually, we should expect that as part of the services we’re offered by local governments.