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March 6, 2006 -- Beach Park Ambulance Tax Referendum
 Why a new Ambulance tax?
A recent court decision decreed that fire protection districts cannot legally raise the money needed to support fire fighting and emergency medical services (EMS) through a single tax, as many - including the Beach Park Fire Protection District - had been doing. Two separate taxes are necessary. The existing corporate tax will continue to support fire fighting operations. A new ambulance tax would preserve EMS. Think about this: The Beach Park Fire Department's ability to provide any emergency life and property-saving services may soon be at risk. Firefighters are cross trained as paramedics. Each skill area requires hundreds of hours of initial and ongoing training. If a fire department offers no emergency medical response service, qualified firefighter/paramedics, including those currently on the Beach Park staff may, understandably, seek employment elsewhere. In the future, no qualified firefighter/paramedics could be expected to apply here. As a result, there could be a real danger that the Beach Park Fire Department may soon become insufficiently staffed to even be able to assure adequate emergency firefighting response. Odds are that you will never have to call 911. But last year Beach Park firefighter/paramedics responded to 1,211 calls, 59% of which were for medical emergencies. The odds were against each of those too. If you were to call 911 for a medical emergency, you would expect immediate response. But what if there was no response. What would you do then? To get to a hospital, you could call a cab. Or your spouse might take you. Or a neighbor. Maybe a private ambulance service, eventually. (They're reserved in advance.) On May 1, if voters don't approve a referendum question on March 21 concerning a modest new ambulance tax, the Beach Park Fire Department will be required, by law, to stop responding to medical emergencies.
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