Nearly a year after the Marion County Board of Supervisors formed an advisory committee to develop a plan for a potential essential services tax to close funding gaps related to ambulance service deficits in the area, a proposal from a separate group will go back to the first for possible approval of said recommendation moving forward.

Marion County Board of Supervisors Chair Mark Raymie made the announcement at the beginning of Tuesday’s meeting, two weeks after a letter was submitted by the Marion County Emergency Management Services Association asking for his removal from the original committee that was to make a proposal to the county board about how to best distribute a possible voter-approved levy among the county’s EMS providers. While Raymie did not directly address that call to action from the letter this week, he instead focused on progress made by a separate group made up of City of Pella and Knoxville administration and local hospital leaders trying to solve how best to split up potential revenue created by a tax increase that would need voter approval. He also denied Marion County Public Health was taking the process over, and that the providers will have their voices heard on this latest proposal at a soon-to-be held meeting.

Raymie did not provide specific details about what would come before the committee made up of the county’s ambulance and fire service chiefs; the proposal was drafted in a meeting featuring city leadership from Knoxville and Pella and could be a path forward to getting eventual language on a ballot for voters to consider sometime this year. The Marion County Board of Supervisors would first have to establish ambulance services as an essential service, and then, draft a measure that would need 60% of Marion County residents to approve if a levy would be added to property taxes. Raymie stressed that the board will not take a vote if they do not receive an approved recommendation beforehand.

Supervisor Steve McCombs also brought up his thoughts about the potential tax moving forward, reinforcing the different levels of needs for ambulance services from the larger cities to the rural townships, and his hopes that the groups can come together to use any potential funding that could come from this to bolster emergency medical coverage in all Marion County communities.

Ultimately, if the recommendation is approved by the EMS leaders of the county, it would represent the funding formula that could be distributed to local providers. The maximum levy amount of $0.75 per $1000 could generate somewhere north of–but still close to, $1 million. How that money would be split between services in Pella and Knoxville has not been made public, but would be if an action item comes before the Marion County Board of Supervisors in the near future.

Listen to the full discussion here: