Column for June 11, 2009

Now that the emotional noise has died down about the proposed cut for Selma EMS budget item by the Town of Selma, it is time to consider how next year's fiscal handling of this same matter will play out. As was reported in this very newspaper, the Town Council voted to restore the full $30,000 budget level for the EMS operations.

I am 100% in support of our EMS operations, employees, and volunteers. I have great respect for what they do. I have done what they do for a living. I personally used to ride on an ambulance with a local rescue squad. I responded to sick calls, automobile accidents, and health emergencies. I even still have my expired Emergency Medical Technician certificate in my file cabinet in my office. I have no real problem with the fact that the Town Council voted to restore the budget for the Selma EMS squad this particular time. I do, however, believe it is time for Selma to cease this unjust expenditure.

The Town of Selma is giving money to subsidize a county function. If the Emergency Medical Services for Johnston County are to be run and paid for by Johnston County, then the burden of funding must be the sole responsibility of the county.

Selma is forking over tens of thousands of dollars every year for services that also serve the towns of Pine Level and Wilson's Mills. That being the case, it is patently unfair for the taxpayers of Selma to have the full burden of financially subsidizing the operation of the local EMS.

My thoughts on this subject are much like those I had on the Selma Police Department converting to the county's 911 dispatch center rather than maintaining our own separate police dispatch operations. As county taxpayers, we are already paying for the county's 911 center operations. As Selma residents, we were paying for a duplicate service which is tantamount to double taxation. When the county is responsible for paying for EMS operations with tax dollars and we end up paying at the town level, too, we are in essence being double taxed for the same service.

The tax burden of the money we give the EMS comes from a small pool of taxpayers, which means a greater amount of money per capita for that service. Take that same amount of money and spread it across the larger pool of 157,000 county residents instead of the 7,000 Selma residents, and it is less of a per capita burden. The proposed $30,000 EMS entitlement on the backs of Selma taxpayers amounts to approximately $4.29 per resident (not necessarily taxpayer) whereas that same thirty grand amounts to just nineteen cents per resident of Johnston County. That is a savings of $4.10 for each Selma resident. Furthermore, it places the burden of finance where it belongs and does not unfairly burden Selma residents with subsidizing the residents of its neighboring towns.

Now is the time for the Selma town leaders to work to get the county to pay its own way for its own operations instead of allowing the Town of Selma to burden its own people. The EMS crew deserves to have solid, regular funding from a regular source. Sure, I believe in being frugal with that money and cutting reasonable expenses where necessary and able. I just believe in fair funding, i.e., taxation.

I do have one question in all of this. When the town was allegedly in so much financial distress a few years ago, people were laid off from the town payroll, employee benefits cut, and budgets were slashed, why was the same argument about paying the county's debt not brought up then? Which employee's job could the town have kept with that $30,000? Or for that matter, how many rusted old water towers could we have torn down for that money? It is time to take it up with the county manager for next year's county budget.

Selma Town Manager Richard Douglas, who reportedly was the initiator of the budget cut, is on the right track towards removing this expenditure from the town budget. The methodology and timing of a highly emotional topic, however, were errors in judgment, in my opinion.