Seven counties will see a new tax next year to fund emergency management services, or ambulance.
A dozen counties across Iowa asked voters on November 5, 2024, to approve a countywide emergency medical services property tax increase to fund ambulance services. Out of that dozen, five failed to reach the necessary 60% threshold to levy the new tax.
Background
Signed into law in June 2021, Senate File 615 provides the framework for counties to deem ambulance service essential and allows them to create a referendum to raise property taxes and/or levy a 1% local income surtax to fund EMS.
Shortly after the enactment of the 2021 law, eight counties placed referenda to introduce the new taxes on their November 2022 ballots, and five reached the required 60% threshold for passage: Jones, Kossuth, Osceola, Pocahontas, and Winnebago. Populations in the three other counties, Calhoun, Floyd, and Worth, did not.
Voters in Cedar, Benton, Ida, and Shelby Counties joined those with approved EMS property taxes in November 2023. Additional counties imposed the tax in 2024, with Louisa County voters approving the measure in March and voters in Henry and parts of Worth County doing so in September. According to the Iowa Department of Management, 12 counties currently use the EMS property tax for the 2025 fiscal year.
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