Clear Creek County will ask voters in November to raise the countywide sales tax by 0.65 percent — or nearly $1 million a year — in order to offset the projected growing costs of providing emergency medical services.
Ambulance service provided by Clear Creek EMS is now subsidized by the county to the tune of $800,000 a year.
“With the continued , we simply cannot afford to subsidize our emergency medical services used by so many residents and visitors in the county every day,” Keith Montag, Clear Creek County’s manager, said in a written statement.
Clear Creek EMS operates on a $1.5 million annual budget, and officials say billing services and reimbursements aren’t covering enough of the costs. The proposed tax increase, if enacted, is estimated to generate $990,875 in its first year starting Jan. 1, 2018.
The Clear Creek County Commission voted unanimously to approve the increase, , and it will go before voters in November. The county currently has a 1 percent sales tax — officials say it is one of the lowest in the state — that has been unchanged since 1976.
The county says the increase would substantially offset the costs associated with increased EMS calls, which have grown by 6 percent annually since 2013. This year is projected to be the busiest on record for Clear Creek EMS, as a growing number of people pass through the county on Interstate 70 on their way to ski areas and the Western Slope.
The move comes as Clear Creek County is as a way to spur an economic revival. This year it opened, with the help of Centura Health, a primary care clinic in Idaho Springs — the county’s first primary care clinic to operate in years.
The county says it is also working with the state’s health department to increase efficiency and to create a better management plan for Clear Creek EMS. A study by the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment is expected by the end of September.