The Seminole Ambulance Service stands to lose an estimated $60,000 per year in funding if voters approve a sales tax referendum next month, and a county commissioner is in part blaming Facebook posts for the cut.

On May 24, the Seminole County Board of County Commissioners (BOCC) called an Aug. 10 election for the extension of a quarter-cent sales tax to fund emergency services in the county. The tax has been in place for 15 years with a portion of the revenue allocated to ambulance services provided by the cities of Konawa, Seminole and Wewoka. Historically, Seminole has received the lion’s share of the funding because the distribution has been based on the number of ambulance runs made by each department and Seminole has outpaced the others.

Earlier this year, the BOCC set the election date for June 8, and the ballot stated that Seminole would receive 20.39% of the ambulance portion (32.5%) of the quarter-cent tax. That election was canceled due to a clerical error (the Seminole Fire Department had been omitted from that ballot), but under the latest proposal, 30% of each quarter-cent will be divided equally among the three ambulance services, knocking Seminole’s portion down to 10%.

According to the official minutes of the May 24 BOCC meeting, Seminole Fire Chief Fielding Lucas asked the board why the change was made after the fire departments had already agreed to the percentages stated on the now-invalid June Ballot. Lucas was answered by District One Commissioner Russell Yott.

“With the clerical error, the commissioners felt they needed to rescind the previous resolution, election proclamation and propositions. I felt from the start that it needed to be split equally between Konawa, Seminole and Wewoka ambulance services and all the negative comments on Facebook toward the county didn’t help,” Yott replied.

On May 14, the Seminole Firefighters Association posted the following to its Facebook page:

“Supporters of Seminole Fire Department, we need your help! The Seminole County Commissioners will meet in the coming weeks to vote on a ballot to change the allotment of county tax dollars to the respective departments within Seminole county. The current proposal would cut in half the amount of tax dollars provided to Seminole Fire Department and give additional dollars to the surrounding departments. This might not seem like a big deal but here are a few facts that show otherwise.

First: Seminole Fire Department responded to more emergency calls than all other departments combined in 2020. Second: Seminole Fire Department is responsible for transferring all patients that leave Seminole hospital to be transferred to a higher level of care. This includes patients from Wewoka and Konawa, who have their own EMS service, but do not execute inter-facility transfers. Seminole Fire does around 1000 transfers per year. Third: Seminole provides mutual aid for both Fire and EMS related incidents to all surrounding departments. These departments reciprocate mutual often as well on the fire side of things and we greatly appreciate all they do.

A cut to county tax funding of this proportion could leave any one or more of these things at risk of changing for the worst. We would ask that you call your respective county commissioner and voice your concern with these new propositions and the consequences that may come with them. Thank you in advance for your assistance with this matter!”

The BOCC is proposing that the quarter-cent sales tax be extended for another five years beginning next January. Three propositions for how the revenue will be divided up will appear on the August ballot.

Proposition One calls for dividing 40 percent of the revenue equally between the eight fire departments in Seminole County, which includes Bowlegs, Cromwell, Konawa, Maud, Sasakwa, Seminole, Strother and Wewoka. This is the current structure of the apportionment.

Under Proposition Two, 30 percent of the revenue will be divided equally among the Konawa, Seminole and Wewoka ambulance services.

Proposition Three states that the remaining 30 percent of the revenue will go to the county’s 911 system. Monies are earmarked for general operations, maintenance, repairs, purchase of equipment and training.

According to the May 24 meeting minutes, Yott added a resolution that if during the duration of the tax should any emergency service entity (Konawa, Wewoka or Seminole) fail, that department’s current and future tax monies shall be divided equally among the entities that would be required to take over the obligation of providing service to that area.

If approved by voters, the tax extension will take effect Jan. 1, 2022 and will expire on Dec. 31, 2026.

I felt from the start that it needed to be split equally between “ Konawa, Seminole and Wewoka ambulance services and all the negative comments on Facebook toward the county didn’t help."

District 1 County Commissioner Russell Yott