By Jacob Barker
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
ST. CHARLES COUNTY, Mo. — Seven months after voters soundly rejected a 1% sales tax, the St. Charles County Ambulance District is back with a more modest proposal — and a warning.
If voters do not approve a sales tax of .375% — three-eighths-of-a-cent — emergency medical service in St. Charles County “will look different than it does today,” the district says in one ad on Facebook.
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Featuring an image of a red octagon with the words “Staff Shortage !!!,” the St. Charles County Ambulance District ad says it will leave eight paramedic positions unfilled, on top of 10 currently open paramedic positions, if the tax proposal fails.
“Fewer paramedics and ambulances operating throughout our community, coupled with growing emergency call volume, will translate to longer response times to 911 emergencies,” the ambulance district, which is not allowed to advocate for or against ballot measures with taxpayer money, says in the ad.
The threatened reductions follow a surge of hiring last year. The district hired 29 new paramedics in 2025, according to its audited financial report, boosting its spending last year nearly 13% to $71 million.
Now, St. Charles County Ambulance District Chief Skip Stephens said the district is running a deficit, and it is in the process of taking over emergency service transport in St. Charles from the city’s fire department. Meanwhile, the 430,000-person county has added 25,000 residents since 2020, making it one of the fastest-growing in the state, particularly for older residents.
“Call times will start to get longer because it’s simple math,” Stephens said Wednesday. “We know more people are moving here, more seniors are moving here, and without additional staffing, we won’t be able to respond as quickly as we do now.”
The .375% levy would push total sales taxes above 8% in several of St. Charles County’s largest municipalities, and to more than 10% in some shopping centers with special sales taxes. With boundaries covering the entirety of Missouri’s third-largest county, the ambulance district’s proposed sales tax would produce an estimated $31 million a year once fully implemented.
Stephens emphasized that half of what the sales tax raises must be rolled back via a reduced property tax rate, the historic funding source for the ambulance district.
However, the new state law authorizing sales taxes for fire districts and ambulance districts does not require a rollback in the first year. That means a property tax reduction would not take effect until 2028 tax bills are due. It eventually would save the owner of a $375,000 home in St. Charles about $80 in annual property taxes.
That delay would give the district extra money Stephens said it plans to use to build two new ambulance stations for its expanded service area in the city of St. Charles .
Stephens estimated the tax would not start being collected until April, meaning the total it expects from that initial year without a property tax rollback would be around $25 million. It would collect a full-year of the sales tax, estimated at $31 million, in 2028 before the property tax levy is reduced later that year.
“There’s a little bit of the best of both worlds for a short time,” Stephens said. “There’s some additional revenue that comes into the district while the transition into sales tax and away from property tax occurs.”
When it eventually is offset by lower property taxes, he expects the ambulance district will net around $15 million a year with the new sales tax, which represents a roughly 20% boost in revenue. The district will use the extra money to stop charging St. Charles County residents the difference between what insurance pays and what it charges for emergency transport, estimated at a few million dollars in annual revenue. Non-residents still would be charged the difference, Stephens said.
It is the latest attempt by a St. Louis -area fire or ambulance district to use a state law passed with little fanfare last year allowing districts in St. Charles and St. Louis counties to ask voters for a sales tax of up to 1%. Dozens of the independent taxing districts simultaneously put a 1% sales tax on the April ballot.
Most in St. Louis County passed, significantly boosting the sales tax rate in much of North St. Louis County.
Voters in West St. Louis County and much of St. Charles County rejected the proposals, including the 1% sought by the St. Charles County ambulance district.
Only three fire districts did not seek the new sales tax in April. The chair of the Mehlville fire district said then that his district did not seek the additional revenue because it was one of the only ones not controlled by the firefighter union, which also represents paramedics at the ambulance district, and that he doubted any of the districts needed the money.
Rep. Richard West, R- New Melle, said that still appears true for the St. Charles County Ambulance District. The district had $36.8 million in unobligated general funds at the end of last year, according to its financial statement.
“They don’t need money right now,” West said. “They have a very healthy fund balance.”
Stephens, though, argued that local property taxes are not keeping up with the rising costs of staff and equipment.
“There won’t be overnight changes,” Stephens said when asked what would happen if the new sales tax does not pass. “But what we know is, we’re going to be pretty stuck in the mud financially in terms of growth for a while.”
That growth has been rapid for years.
The ambulance district opened a $32 million, 140,000 square-foot St. Peters headquarters in 2021. In 2024, its total revenue jumped by 33% to $71 million after St. Charles County approved a 7-cent property tax increase in 2022. It collects well over twice the $20 million in property taxes it collected in 2017.
Its total staffing has grown by nearly 100 people since 2021, to 294 full-time equivalents in 2025.
Stephens said the district uses response times to determine staffing, and that its average response time of seven minutes is below the national average. As the number of calls has increased by more than 50% in the last decade, the district has boosted staff levels to keep up.
“We are staying as lean as we can,” Stephens said, “to maintain the high level of service that we deliver to the residents of St. Charles County .”
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