NAMPA, IDAHO — With primary elections approaching Idaho News 6 went to downtown Nampa Tuesday afternoon, to speak with locals about the proposed levy.
- The Canyon County Paramedics are asking for $7,982,000 in the permanent levy.
- The funds would help support the rebuild of Station 3, open another station in Caldwell, and create two new units.
- To see how this levy will affect your annual taxes click here.
- For more on the May 21st ballot click here.
- To see our previous coverage on this levy click here.
(Below is the transcript from the broadcast story)
Primary elections are now just 3 weeks away and many public services are asking voters for an increase in funding through new taxes. I'm your neighborhood reporter Alexander Huddleston at Canyon County Paramedics Station 3 which is one of the busiest stations in the district but is also planned to be eventually torn down.
"Yeah, we get nickel and dimed. Five bucks. Five bucks. Five bucks. Ten bucks here. It all adds up really quickly," said local Chris Hider.
Canyon County voters have multiple levies to vote for on the primary ballots come May 21st. I met Canyon County Paramedics Chief Michael Stowell at station 3, one of the busiest stations in the district but because of nearby land projects, will be torn down in the future. Stowell broke down how the proposed 7.9 million dollar override tax levy is going to help bring back the building and relieve some of its work.
"The levy will provide the funds to rebuild the station. We need to build a station in Caldwell because we are underserved in Caldwell. we only have two stations there," explained Chief Stowell.
Chief Stowell continued, "We would like to add two additional ambulances to our system and we need to staff those units."
Currently, locals are paying around 10 dollars annually for every hundred thousand dollars of taxable assessed value. this proposal would bump it up to around 31 dollars annually.
I walked around downtown and at Lakeview Park speaking to locals about the levy.
"To me, it's common sense. make everyone safe. it's only a few extra bucks a month," said Hider.
This was a common answer from locals I spoke with.
Hider finished, "To me, it's not that much more."
If Canyon County voters want to see how this levy would affect their property taxes, the Canyon County Paramedics website features a property tax calculator.
