Taxpayer priorities
A costly experiment, paid for by taxpayers
Local governments, city managers and fire chiefs are pushing a plan to take over San Luis Obispo County’s ambulance service – at a major cost to taxpayers, and without any guarantee of a financial return.
The plan would commit millions in taxpayer dollars to create a new ambulance operation that replaces the local, family-owned provider already serving the community. Even worse, this ambulance grab – funded by taxpayers – would benefit only the bottom line of a hedge-fund-owned corporation, at the expense of a respected local family business.
At a time when city budgets are tight, taxpayer dollars should be fixing roads, supporting police and improving essential city services – not financing an unnecessary ambulance grab.
While local governments debate spending millions to replace the existing system, San Luis Ambulance has invested millions in local emergency care. It has put seven new ambulance and service vehicles into operation in recent months, and it employs more than 150 local workers, the vast majority of whom live, work and volunteer in our county. Replacing a company that has served our community as a family-owned business for more than eighty years with a hedge-fund-managed national company would mean fewer jobs, less community giving and less responsibility to our community.
Why should taxpayers spend millions replacing an ambulance service that already works? Why should the County replace a respected local business with a corporate behemoth, beholden to Wall Street shareholders?
