[Bill14564]

Originally Posted by crash

The fire fee does not cover ambulance service just fire. The ambulance service is stilled paid for from your property taxes. The fire fee raises $23 million for fire protection the budget for the fire department is $53 million.

This is incorrect.

The VPSD request for 2023 to cover both fire and ambulance was $34M. The budget for the VPSDDD for 2024 is not $53M and even if the ambulance was separated, it would not be an additional $20M on top of the VPSDDD.

$53M is close to the $60M request for both VPSD and SCFEMS combined. The VPSDDD budget will only cover services within the Villages area. A separate MSBU is being worked on to cover SCFEMS expenses.
[EDIT: The VPSD proposed budget for this year was $47M. However, only $34M was to come from the county and only $20M was ultimately approved. This $20M is a very close match to the $19M to be collected through the VPSDDD assessment next year.]

"Ambulance service" includes EMS and advanced life support (ALS) transport. I believe the EMS functions can be funded through the dependent district. The only portion of "ambulance service" that cannot be funded through the district is the ALS transport. I believe those expenses will be covered by the transport fee (someone quoted $550). But this would be a great question to take to the VPSDDD meeting or the Sumter County BoCC meeting.