Funding Issues Facing Emergency Service Organizations In West Virginia
Emergency Services Organizations in West Virginia work very hard to make sure their departments are well funded. This is an ongoing process, that requires extraordinary effort from local jurisdictions.
One current issue being debated in this 86th Legislature is how to allocate the 1% insurance premium tax that was allocated to local fire departments in the 1980s. The issue arises because, following this allocation, because of the underfunded teacher retirement fund in the state, local fire departments have only been receiving 55% of that original 1% allocation. This solution provides each fire company in West Virginia about $50,000 annually from this funding source.
The teacher retirement fund has now been brought to solvency over time through the allocation of 45% of the 1% of insurance premium tax funding that was originally promised to local fire departments. In deciding how to allocate the roughly $38 million coming through this funding source, current legislation proposes increasing the allocation for fire departments to 77.5% of the insurance premium tax money, with EMS companies receiving the 22.5% balance. This would amount to a roughly $6,000 annual increase for each fire department in the state.
There are about 420 fire departments in West Virginia. The total number of EMS companies comes to about 250. With both fire departments and EMS companies increasingly being stretched to secure resources to provide services within their jurisdictions, this is an important issue facing this legislature.
