The Occupational License Fee, or better known as Occupational Tax, has been in effect in Clinton County for the most part, since the late 1990s. However, over the years and still today, many people still think of it as an “ambulance” tax.

At a recent special meeting of the Clinton County Fiscal Court, dealing with options to fund pay raises for most county employees, several ambulance service employees were in attendance and at least one employee of that service stated that a lot of people think the Occupational License Fee is actually an ambulance tax.

Local officials, however, are now stressing to the public that the Occupational Tax, although used in part to supplement and fund ambulance service operations, is “not” an ambulance tax but that all revenue from the fees collected through employees payroll and business license fees go directly to the general fund and is actually used for general county business and other services.

The ambulance service does not generate enough runs to have enough revenue to operate in the black and depend on the general fund for help in operating. However, according to budget numbers, about the same amount of funds from the Occupational Tax goes to supplement the Clinton County Jail as it does the ambulance service and further, between the two, takes up almost the entire amount of taxes through the Occupational License Fee collected on an annual basis.

Those figures, however, were based on the past .75 cents per $100 in OT fees collected. The new rate of $1.25, which began with the current quarter that started July 1, is expected to raise the revenues from the Occupational Tax by a few hundred thousand dollars.

County Judge-Executive Richard Armstrong said during an interview last week that the county has had to borrow money from the road fund to make payroll and that those funds, by law, have to be paid back to the road fund by the end of each fiscal year.

County Treasurer Dallas Sidwell also noted that both the ambulance service and jail, which generates very little revenue and very little financial assistance from the state, is almost $400,000 annually from the Occupational Tax fund account, which combined has put a major strain on the county’s budget.

The Occupational License Fee, or tax, combined with the net profits tax on businesses, generated around $860,000 total last year.

When the Occupational Tax was first adopted in 1999, there was a clear perception that funds from the tax was needed to operate a local ambulance service and there was a proposal put forth that half of the tax collected be used for the ambulance service, a quarter for the jail and the last 25 percent in the general fund. That initial proposal did not pass when the ordinance was eventually adopted.

One subsection of the original ordinance creating the tax in April of 1999, it reads, “All remaining proceeds shall be used for general governmental purposes, including the purpose of defraying the general expenses of county government.”

Despite the funds used from the occupational fees to help defray costs of two discussed services, judge Armstrong said “the ambulance (service) and jail aren’t breaking the county. We’re trying to find ways to support them and pay (their employees),” he said.

He added that over the past several years, “everything has gone up, except revenues.” He also noted that the local jail was not large enough to break even, saying it would take a 75-bed capacity facility to do that.

Since the recent discussions on county employee salaries, and especially the need for higher rates of pay for ambulance service employees to hire and keep experienced workers, some–including the county judge–have advocated making the ambulance service a taxing district, something that most surrounding counties already have in place to fund their ambulance services.

Such a move would take about a year for actual revenues to be seen, but may be a long-term solution for ambulance funding problems and would be a tax likely imposed on property tax rolls. However, that proposal is still in the talking stages and would require fiscal court approval.

Area counties who have an ambulance service tax include Russell, Cumberland, Casey, Metcalfe, Monroe, Green and Adair and the rates range in those counties anywhere from 2.30 (in Casey County) up to the highest allotted 10 percent per $100 assessed value in Green County.

Advocates of the ambulance service being a taxing district–which would mean it would have an ambulance board approved by the county but operated by the board–say it would make the service self-sustaining without need of general government funds, as well as freeing up revenue from the occupational tax that cold be used for other services.

However, opponents feel it would still be an extra tax on local residents, specifically property owners and do not favor any type of additional tax being imposed.