The Reporter newspaper, Camdenton Missouri

The Reporter covers Miller, Morgan and Camden County in Central Missouri's Lake of the Ozarks and is published once per week on Wednesdays.

Published August 23, 2023

Tax levy remains the same for ambulance district

CAMDEN COUNTY – The Camden County Ambulance District (CCAD) voted last week to keep the tax levy at the current rate, 0.2791.

The district is bringing in just enough to meet costs but this could change in the future and they may need a higher tax or an alternative route for taxes to support the district.

This rate will bring in more tax money that last year, even though the rate has not changed.

The valuation of the county determines how much tax entities get if the taxes come from personal property tax, as the ambulance district does.

The total valuation of the area covered by the CCAD was $679,927,585 in 2022.

This year it has risen to $696,268,861, an increase of over $16,000,000.

So the more the county is worth the more personal property tax comes in and the more money is funneled to tax entities that exist off of that tax.

That brought up another discussion at the meeting and that is the future. With prices of everything still going up the district may not bring in enough money to cover expenses.

The ambulance board has discussing changing the source of income from personal property tax to a sales tax.

If the district went that direction, there are some positive and negative aspects that come into play.

Personal property taxes for those in the ambulance district will go down, a positive.

Since visitors to the lake area (that do not own property here) use the ambulance service, they get the service for free. Even though they are charged when they use it, if they do not or cannot pay, they get the service for free.

Those owning property here pay taxes to support the ambulance district but visitors don’t. So switching to a sales tax to support the district, anyone buys locally will be paying to support it, a positive.

A negative is if the economy of this country gets worse people will travel less and buy less which could lower the income the district would receive.

According to the Camden County Clerk’s office, the valuation of the county has risen every year for at least the past 15 years.

But if the valuation of the county goes down, which it can, then the district will receive less money if it stays with the property tax route.

A representative from Mercy was on hand at last week’s meeting and said several ambulance districts are switching to a sales tax instead of personal property tax and it has been a positive step.

The ambulance district will get some figures together to decide if they will go to the voters and switch to a sales tax in the future.

In the mean time, the tax rate will stay the same at 0.2791.