Alameda County Municipal Code Ch. 2.20 Emergency Medical Services District Special Tax

It is the intent of the board of supervisors of the county in adopting this chapter to provide for the continued funding of ambulance, paramedic, trauma care, and related services being provided by the emergency medical services district, County Service Area EM-1983-1, presently being funded with benefit assessments that will cease to be collected July 1, 1997 as a result of the passage of Proposition 218 in November 1996 (California Constitution, Articles XIIIC and XIIID). The board of supervisors proposes to replace the current benefit assessment of twenty-one dollars and fourteen cents ($21.14) per benefit unit with a special tax of twenty-one dollars and fourteen cents ($21.14) per benefit unit. Voter approval of the twenty-one dollars and fourteen cents ($21.14) per benefit unit special tax would raise approximately eleven million dollars ($11,000,000.00) in revenue which is needed to continue to fund the basic emergency medical services district services.

(Ord. 97-52 § 1 (part))

This chapter and the tax authorized herein is adopted pursuant to the provisions of the County Services Area Law (Government Code Sections 25210.1 et seq.), Proposition 62 (Government Code Sections 53720 et seq.), and the California Constitution, Article XIIIA, Section 4, Article XIIIC, Section 2, and Article XIIID, Section 3. The tax authorized herein is based on the use and occupancy of improved real property.

(Ord. 97-52 § 1 (part))

This chapter may be cited as the "emergency medical services district special tax." The special tax imposed under this chapter is solely for the purposes of raising revenue for the operation of emergency medical services district, County Services Area EM-1983-1, for providing ambulance, paramedic, trauma center, and related services.

(Ord. 97-52 § 1 (part))

The rate of the emergency medical services special tax shall be in the amount of twenty-one dollars and fourteen cents ($21.14) per "benefit unit" per year and shall be assessed against each parcel of real property within County Services Area EM-1983-1, which includes all the cities and unincorporated area within the county of Alameda with the exception of the city of Alameda. Once each year the board of supervisors is authorized to adjust by resolution the tax rate authorized by this chapter by the amount which the Consumer Price Index for the San Francisco Bay Area shall have increased during the immediately preceding year. The tax rate as so adjusted is then the new base tax rate. The number of benefit units (BU) shall be determined by the use to which the owner has put the property, as follows:

Any tax levied under this chapter shall become a lien upon the properties against which it is assessed and shall be collected in conjunction with the county's collection of property tax revenues. The imposition of penalties, additional fees and interest upon persons who fail to remit any tax imposed by this chapter, or who fail to remit any delinquent remittance under this chapter, shall be subject to and governed by the rules, regulations and procedures utilized by the county in its collection of property taxes.

Every penalty imposed and such interest as accrues under the provisions of this chapter shall become a part of the tax herein required to be paid.

(12-1-03 applied county directed corrections to Ord. 97-52 § 1 (part); Ord. 97-52 § 1 (part))

The provisions of this chapter shall not apply to any person, association, corporation or to any property as to whom or which it is beyond the power of the board of supervisors to impose the tax herein provided. If any sentence, clause, section or part of this chapter, or any tax against any person is found to be unconstitutional, illegal or invalid, such unconstitutionality, illegality, or invalidity shall affect only such clause, sentence, section or part of this chapter and shall not affect or impair any of the remaining provisions, sentences, clauses, sections or other parts of this chapter. It is declared to be the intention of the board of supervisors that this chapter would have been adopted had such unconstitutional, illegal or invalid sentence, clause, section or part thereof not been included herein.

(Ord. 97-52 § 1 (part))

The authorization to levy a tax under this chapter shall continue from year to year. This chapter or any provision thereof may be amended or repealed by the board of supervisors. Any amendment increasing the tax rate, except as provided herein with respect to the Consumer Price Index, must first be approved by at least two-thirds of the voters voting on the increase before it shall become effective.

(Ord. 97-52 § 1 (part))