FIRST REGULAR SESSION

HOUSE COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE FOR

SENATE COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE FOR

SENATE BILL NO. 436

90TH GENERAL ASSEMBLY


Reported from the Committee on Local Government and Related Matters, April 14, 1999, with recommendation that the House Committee Substitute for Senate Committee Substitute for Senate Bill No. 436 Do Pass.

ANNE C. WALKER, Chief Clerk

L2023.03C

AN ACT

To repeal section 190.044, RSMo Supp. 1998, relating to ambulance service, and to enact in lieu thereof one new section relating to the same subject.


Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the state of Missouri, as follows:

Section A. Section 190.044, RSMo Supp. 1998, is repealed and one new section enacted in lieu thereof, to be known as section 190.044, to read as follows:

190.044. 1. No taxpayer shall be required to pay property taxes for ground ambulance service to both an ambulance district and a fire protection district or two ambulance districts which [operates] operate a ground ambulance service, unless reaffirmed and authorized pursuant to this section. In the event that a taxpayer in a third class county is paying taxes to both entities to provide ground ambulance service, any taxpayer residing in the area subject to the double tax may file a petition with the county clerk in which the area, or greatest part thereof, is situated requesting that the double tax be eliminated and that the area only pay a tax to one entity.

2. Upon receipt of such petition, the county clerk shall determine the area taxed by two such entities and place the question before the voters of such area at the next state or municipal election. The petition shall request that the following question be submitted to the voters residing within the geographic limits of the area:

The ......................................... (description of area) is currently paying a tax to provide ambulance service to the ................................... (name of entity created first) and the .................... (name of entity created second). [As a result, shall the tax paid to provide ambulance service to the ............................................. (name of entity created second) be eliminated?

Yes No]



As a result, choose only one of the following districts to provide ambulance service and taxation:

................... (name of entity created first.)

................... (name of entity created second).

3. [If a majority of the votes cast are in favor of the elimination of the tax levied and collected by the entity providing ambulance service, then the remaining entity will] The entity receiving the most votes shall be declared as the single taxing entity for the area in question. The taxpayers within the area shall thereafter only pay one tax to the [remaining] single taxing entity following a three-year period, over which the tax rate levied and collected shall be decreased by one-third each year until such tax is no longer levied or collected by the entity [whose tax was proposed for elimination by the petition. If a majority of the votes cast are opposed to the elimination of the tax, then the tax shall be reaffirmed] not chosen to provide service.

4. All costs incurred by the county clerk as a result of this section, including election costs, shall be paid by the entity [whose tax was proposed for termination by the petition] not chosen to provide service.

5. The boundaries and service area of the entities providing ambulance service will reflect the change as determined by the election.

6. In any city located in more than one county and having a population of greater than four hundred thousand inhabitants, no ambulance service providing service to such city shall change from one ambulance service provider to another such provider in any way whatsoever unless a majority of the voters voting in such city approve a question authorizing such service to change service providers. Such question shall appear in substantially the following form:

"Shall .................. (insert name of ambulance service) be allowed to change ambulance service providers?"

YES NO



If the majority of the voters voting thereon approve the question, then such service may change service providers. If the majority of the voters voting thereon reject the question, then such service shall not change service providers until a majority of the voters voting approve such change. Each change of service providers by such ambulance service shall be approved by the vote described in this subsection.


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