Unofficial election results from Bucks County Wednesday morning showed 57.48% of votes in support, and 42.52% votes opposed.
[My unofficial survey results of 156 Newtown residents: 65% YES, 26% NO, 9% UNDECIDED. Close, but no cigar!]
Newtown Township will now increase property taxes by 0.5 mills, an idea that the Newtown Ambulance Squad (NAS) proposed to the township.
“We’re clearly very pleased with the outcome… The residents chose to support us in a way we’ve been asking for for a very long time,” said Evan Resnikoff, chief of operations for Newtown Ambulance and president of the Bucks County EMS Chiefs’ Association.
The ambulance squad has lost a large portion of its staff; it currently has 37 employees — about a quarter of the people it employed five years ago. As a result, the ambulance squad had to cut its second ambulance from seven nights to two and end its transport service, which provided people with rides to doctor’s appointments and nursing homes.
Resnikoff said the squad plans to use the funds from the tax increase to raise staff wages, and leaders hope that will help them keep employees. Resnikoff said the squad pays well below its Bucks County counterparts.
The ambulance squad serves Newtown Borough and Newtown Township, an area with a total of about 22,000 residents.
Newtown Township residents currently pay 8.49 mills in property taxes, which equates to a tax bill of $370.16 for the owner of a home assessed at $43,600. Newtown Ambulance Squad already gets 0.5 mills of that tax rate.
The increase of 0.5 mills will cost the owner of a home assessed at $43,600 an extra $21.80 per year.
If all of the taxes are collected, according to Resnikoff, the ambulance squad will receive $342,000, doubling their previous tax revenue of $171,000.
“We’ve been here for 70 years this year,” Resnikoff said. “And we hope to be here for 70 more.”
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