By Steve Metzer
Tulsa World
OKLAHOMA CITY — Rural ambulance services, like those supported by the Oologah-Talala EMS district in Rogers County, are struggling to make ends meet, and the current push to cut property taxes has left some administrators worried about the potential need for a life-saving intervention.
Administrators who spoke at a recent hearing held at the state Capitol on ambulance service struggles included Brandi Pond, who oversees emergency medical services in the Rogers County district. She said the sliver of local property taxes dedicated to the support of ambulance services there has produced more revenue in recent years. Funding generated by the tax rose from $394,000 in 2020 to $469,000 in 2025.
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But that wasn’t enough to offset the EMS district’s rapidly increasing costs, Pond said.
While in 2020, ambulance personnel in the district responded to a few more than 700 calls, by 2025 she said that number had risen to more than 1,800. While total operational costs in 2020 stood at around $1.4 million, by 2025 they had risen to $2.2 million.
Pond said operational costs this year will likely be in the range of $2.5 million.
So the 19% increase in EMS funding generated by the property tax since 2020 has been more than outmatched by the 158% increase in call volumes and 57% increase in operational costs.
“Even though the revenue did rise, it’s nowhere near the growth in demand or the cost of operating the services,” Pond said.
Other revenue streams support the services, including fees charged to patients and fees paid by hospitals for patient transfers, but they don’t make up for the differences — and the gaps between revenues and what it costs to provide ambulance services only seem to be widening.
Pond and others called attention to the rising funding challenges during an interim study organized for lawmakers on the House County and Municipal Government Committee by Rep. Mike Dobrinski, R- Okeene. They cautioned lawmakers that any reduction in property tax collections could significantly impact ambulance districts.
“It’s just a little scary at the moment,” Pond said. “All the conversations and the political environment of removing property taxes definitely has us saying, ‘What are we going to do if that happens?’ Any cut to that revenue stream, you could see would be drastic.”
Oklahoma law allows counties the option of asking voters to approve sales taxes of up to 1% to support EMS. But participants recommended exploring other options as well.
“It’s obvious there are no easy solutions,” Dobrinski said. “Both emergency ambulance services and public school funding are incredibly important issues to constituents both in my House district in northwest Oklahoma and in multiple communities throughout the state. In both cases, we must make sure we have the right laws in place to ensure fairness when appropriating taxpayer dollars and to allow local officials the latitude to best meet the needs of those they serve.”
Rep. David Hardin, R- Stilwell, said lawmakers may need to look beyond property taxes to keep rural ambulance services healthy.
“We’re going to have to figure out another form of funding,” he said. “We’re going to have to look at other means than going after the landowners, at least where I live.”
Others who spoke included Marie Schuvel, the director of policy research at the Oklahoma Tax Commission, who offered background history and some current operational details about the state’s 67 EMS districts, and Brian Norton, who directs emergency medical services in Bryan County.
Norton said Bryan County EMS has five ambulances to cover roughly 990 square miles, and crews are frequently stretched thin responding to more than 8,000 calls a year.
“There’s a big disparity in EMS and how we are funded. Everybody wants an ambulance, but nobody wants to pay for it.” Norton said. “It’s a Catch 22 that we’re in right now that in the political environment we’re in everybody wants to cut taxes, but the only way to save EMS right now is to raise taxes.”
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