The Saugerties Town Board last week voted to back a proposal introduced by Ulster County Legislator Jason Kovacs to allocate $5 million from the county’s fund balance to help fund emergency medical services to local municipalities.
The proposal was introduced at the county level by Kovacs (R-Towns of Ulster, Kingston and Saugerties) and would distribute the funding to the county’s 20 towns and the City of Kingston based on population and assessed value, with the total amount ranging between $19,000-$350,000.
“Our county is at a critical junction when it comes to emergency medical services,” said Kovacs during a March 4 meeting of the legislature’s Law Enforcement and Public Safety Committee. “This is a targeted investment in community safety.”
Ultimately, the proposal has failed to gain support from the county’s emergency services director Everett Erichsen and others, and the committee voted to delay further consideration. Municipal leaders at a meeting of countywide supervisors and mayors expressed their disappointment at the lack of support from county executive Jen Metzger’s administration, and with their vote one day later, the Saugerties Town Board joined the groundswell.
Local communities have struggled in recent years with inconsistent ambulance coverage, with expenses rising for each level of service. Diaz Ambulance provides service in Saugerties, and is funded through a municipal ambulance district. Its budget for 2024 is $2.76 million, up 2.83 percent, or $75,862 from 2023. But according to Saugerties Town Supervisor Fred Costello, the company has struggled with both rising costs and competition beyond Saugerties from other ambulance companies.
“Our model (with Diaz) I would argue works,” Costello said. “But that model is under threat right now. They’re struggling to recruit and retain employees, and they’re suffering from the formulas for reimbursement rates. And they are also suffering from the increase in expenses related to everything from payroll to cost of equipment in medicine. We’ve been able to sustain and help them through these challenges, but we’re transferring the cost to the taxpayers because we’ve been beating our allocation every year and that’s not sustainable. So if some funding through the county comes available in the short term that will help us in the near term and it would help other communities that don’t have a foundation like Diaz in place get there.”
At the meeting of municipal leaders on Tuesday, March 18, Erichsen commended Kovacs’ proposal, but said it was a temporary fix and unsustainable. He added that since a March 2024 assessment showed areas of the county in significant need of improved services, a countywide plan has been in the works.
Like many of the supervisors and mayors at that meeting, Costello said that a comprehensive plan is a good idea, but added that the immediate need is so great that it needs to be addressed sooner than later.
“That’s not going to happen quickly and the consequences for doing nothing right now could outweigh waiting to see what the future is going to look like,” Costello said. “I do think over time we’re going to find solutions to these problems, but in the near future what’s happening is not sustainable. If you inventory the budgets for all the local municipalities, a good portion of the increases we all put in will support EMS and we all agreed that that was important. But it doesn’t change the fact that our taxpayers have to pay that cost.”
In addition to a comprehensive long-term solution at the county level, Costello said it was also necessary for sustainable assistance at the state and federal level.
“There’s a big movement in Albany to acknowledge EMS workers as essential workers like they were during COVID,” Costello said. “And there’s been legislation already passed that changes some of the reimbursement formulas, but those haven’t been fully implemented yet. And we don’t know If they’re in fact, going to be beneficial or not. We think they are but it’s going to take a period of time to work out and until it’s worked out a little bit of support in the near term would be very helpful.”
Join the family! 
