by Kate Shunney
Morgan County Commissioners are still looking for the fairest but most effective way to apply the county’s ambulance fee to commercial property owners. They’ll hold a second public hearing to gather more input on the issue this Thursday, November 13 at 6 p.m. in the County Commission meeting room at the county courthouse.
Last Wednesday, November 5, just two business owners attended the scheduled public hearing on a proposal to have commercial properties pay the county’s ambulance service fee.
Matt Omps said he came to the November 5 hearing to learn more, and to get a sense of how the fee would impact businesses. He voiced support for the county’s EMS service, but said he had concerns that a new commercial fee would make Morgan County appear to be less business-friendly, on top of other challenges.
“We’re already not favorable in many ways,” Omps said.
Commissioners thanked Omps for his questions and asked him to encourage other business owners to come to a second public hearing.
Bill Stackhouse, who said he owns a mobile business in the county, told commissioners he thought the number of people at a business would be a more important consideration for charging a commercial fee than square footage.
Commissioners said gathering data for that basis could be complicated, and the EMS Board doesn’t want to hire additional staff to track down and verify that kind of information.
Who pays what?
Since the fee’s inception, only residential property owners have been billed the ambulance fee, which is now $150 for each dwelling unit in the county.
Previous county administrations drew the line on raising that fee again, saying if they needed more funding for ambulance service that commercial property owners should join in paying the fee.
In opening the November 5 public hearing about the proposal to have a commercial ambulance fee, Commissioner Sean Forney outlined how much costs for ambulance service have changed since 2016, when the fee was last raised.
He said the cost of ambulances, cardiac monitors and medical supplies have gone up 35 to 50% in the last nine years.
Forney is the county’s representative on the Morgan County EMS Board, which collects the ambulance fee and is responsible for contracting out the county’s 24/7 ambulance services.
Morgan County EMS currently holds the contract to provide ambulance service the county residents. Their last annual contract was renewed at the cost of $1.54 million. The county collected $1.34 million in ambulance fee revenue in the 2024/2025 Fiscal Year.
Adding the ambulance fee to commercial properties is a way to make up for that $200,000 shortfall, which likely will increase as medical and personnel costs rise.
Forney said the EMS Board went through the budget for Morgan County EMS looking for any cost savings in the annual contract.
One of the main challenges is keeping the ambulance stations staffed with qualified employees.
“How do we continue to compete with hiring and retention when they can go to another county and make more?” Forney said.
He has presented several options for how Morgan County could apply a fee to commercial properties.
One would be similar to the fire fee, calculating a fee based on the square footage of a commercial structure.
Forney said a $6 fee per 100 square feet of commercial structures would generate roughly $110,000 per year for the county.
Forney said Berkeley County charges their fee based on the number of employees at a business.
He said there could be a base fee of $150, no matter the size or nature of a business.
“Why should businesses pay any less than homeowners?” Forney said.
EMS Board member Wayne Sanderson echoed that feeling, saying he pays the fee but his property doesn’t generate any revenue for him.
“At the very least, the businesses should be paying at least what the property owners are,” he said.
Omps noted that commercial property owners pay double the rate of property tax that residential owners do.
“We are paying more property taxes that should be supporting this,” Omps said of county ambulance service.
Asked if the county would consider a flat fee for all commercial properties, Commissioner Forney said, “A shop downtown should not pay the same as Food Lion.”
The county estimates there are 269 commercial properties the fee could be charged to. If they paid the current ambulance fee of $150, that would raise $40,350 in added revenue. The county is seeking to raise ambulance fee revenue by $150-200,000 each year.
Commission President Bill Clark said another funding tool for ambulance service is a special levy that voters pass and then revisit every couple of years. Some counties in West Virginia use that method, but Clark said he doesn’t favor that path, calling it “not sustainable” over the long term.
Commissioner Joel Tuttle said imposing a new fee or raising the current ambulance fee could be reason for putting the county’s ambulance service contract out for bid, as was done when the fee first went in place.
“At some point you have to prove to people that there isn’t someone who could meet the service for less money,” Tuttle said.
Tuttle said an RFP would allow the county to change their parameters of service or negotiate other aspects of a contract.
Commissioner Clark said the county doesn’t control Morgan County EMS and their operations, and also mentioned an RFP to seek out the most competitive contract for service.
Representatives from Morgan County EMS were in attendance at the hearing.
“We don’t have any skin in the game,” Clark said.
“Our only skin is our constituents,” said Commissioner Tuttle.
There was also discussion about whether non-profit properties and churches, which don’t pay property tax, would still be levied a commercial fee as they are in other counties.
Commissioner Forney said anyone who wants to share ideas or email the commission with feedback are welcome to do so.
