Death and Taxes

Attended the South Platte Ambulance District meeting last night. They set the levy (which determines their part of your property tax) last night The verdict? Taxes for the the 09 budget year are going up. The levy is currently 8 cents per $100 of assessed valuation, it is being set at 9 cents per $100 for 09. What does that really mean? For each $100,000 of assessed value you will be paying an extra $17, many homes in WL are of higher value, so just do the math. It doesn't seem like much more, or as President Bobby Kincaid says, our service is cheap, a real bargain.

Let's take a closer look. I asked Jason White, a Director for MAST ambulance service about the response times for emergencies at WL. The gold standard is 9 minutes or less for a major emergency. He said although he didn't have the statistics with him, he believed the response times for WL have not changed since inception of the District. Paying more and enjoying it less? It gets worse. Mr White said during the meeting "the bridge (BRB) out is a significant issue" and could adversely affect response times. He said their guess is they used the bridge on 10 calls a week, because it is a "major east/west artery". They are still trying to determine the best work around, but their calculations indicates it adds at least three miles to responses in some cases. Of course this is just not a Westside issue, because depending on where their equipment is located it could affect the East side of WL as well. Alderman Hoy mentioned in her email to constituents about the "inconvenience" of the bridge closing. Waiting precious minutes could be a matter of life or death.

Sorry for your inconvenience.