South Milwaukee has a first-class paramedic operation. Let’s hope it stays that way.
Our community, like others in Milwaukee County, relies on the county to fund part of the annual paramedic bill, and now there are concerns that funding will dry up. From a Milwaukee Journal Sentinel article Monday:
Municipal leaders throughout Milwaukee County voiced fears Monday that they would soon be saddled with paying the full cost of paramedic services, either through restructuring county government or through county budget cuts. County Executive Scott Walker later sought to put those fears to rest, vowing to oppose any move that would leave cities and villages without paramedic funding.
“You’d better be prepared not to have the (paramedic funding) from the county,” Oak Creek Mayor Richard Bolender warned fellow mayors and village presidents at a meeting of the Intergovernmental Cooperation Council. “I think it’s just going to die. . . . I have a bad feeling about this.”
Bolender said he expected the cash-strapped county to cut off funding for the service within a year or two.
It’s a scary thought for communities like ours with already cash-strapped budgets. Without that funding, the future of paramedic programs is in jeopardy.
You can read the whole story here. It quotes South Milwaukee Mayor Tom Zepecki on the paramedic issue and notes his concerns with another touchy subject: a state proposal to shift property tax assessments from municipal and town governments to counties.
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