The Wisconsin EMS Association opposes the implementation of license fees for Wisconsin ambulance service providers. Many of Wisconsin's ambulance services operate as non-profit, volunteer agencies. Many of these same services continually struggle financially in their operations. They look to community donations and hold fund raisers to purchase needed equipment and supplies, obtain continuing education, and up-grade the level of service that they provide to the community. It was for these reasons that the Funding Assistance Program (FAP) was created in 1990. In this program, the State of Wisconsin provides funding to ambulance services that provide primary emergency response. It is a complete contradiction for the State of Wisconsin to provide funding to an ambulance service and then mandate money be returned to the State of Wisconsin in the form of a provider license fee. This tactic is nothing less than moving money from an expense line of the state budget, to an income line of the state budget, in the form of a fee passed through the ambulance service.

During the past years, The Department of Health and Family Services (DHFS) and the State EMS Board have successfully demonstrated themselves to be friends and supporters of Wisconsin EMS and EMTs. The EMS Board has made it a priority to identify funding for EMS and has charged a committee with working toward this goal. Creating a new fee structure on ambulance providers directly contradicts the efforts of the EMS Board and the population they serve. It also sends a message to the Wisconsin EMS community that the ultimate goal of these two entities is truly not to support and aid Wisconsin's ambulance services.

The Wisconsin EMS Association urges that license fees for Wisconsin ambulance providers not be created. The implementation of an ambulance provider fee contradicts the efforts communities have instituted to generate volunteerism and to control costs associated with providing necessary services to local Wisconsin communities. The funds that might by raised for the State of Wisconsin through such a program are greatly outweighed by the negative impact that will be displayed on Wisconsin ambulance providers and EMTs. The Wisconsin EMS Association requests that this plan be removed immediately from the budget proposal of 1999-2000.