UPDATE (November 8, 2022): “Voters Support Additional Needed Funding for the #NewtownPA Ambulance Squad”; https://sco.lt/5uUlXM
[Image: Members of the Newtown Ambulance Squad are thankful for community support.]
Leaders of the Newtown Township Ambulance Squad say they need more public funding to be able to continue answering life-saving emergency calls.
The ambulance squad that serves Newtown Borough and Newtown Township in Bucks County — a community of about 22,000 residents — is facing the same financial issues as other emergency medical services across the Philadelphia suburbs and the commonwealth. The cost of medical equipment has increased, staff are leaving for better-paying jobs, and the squad has a funding model that relies mostly on insurance collections and patient co-pays, rather than local taxes.
“I’ve been in emergency medical services for 27 years and never in a million years did I think that we would be in the staffing and funding crisis that we’re in now,” said Evan Resnikoff, chief of operations for Newtown Ambulance and president of the Bucks County EMS Chiefs’ Association.
Resnikoff is hoping some more dedicated funding from the township will help. And at his request, Newtown Township is asking voters if they want to approve a roughly 6% tax increase to help fund the ambulance squad.
Newtown Township residents currently pay 8.49 mills in property taxes, which equates to a tax bill of $370.16 for the owner of a home assessed at $43,600. Newtown Ambulance Squad already gets 0.5 mills of that tax rate.
The proposed increase of 0.5 mills would cost the owner of a home assessed at the township average an extra $21.80 per year.
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