In recent years, local governments have struggled to sustain their fire and emergency medical services (EMS) at current levels. Costs have risen, driven upward by an aging population, rising EMS calls, high inflation and low unemployment, and the steady attrition of volunteer and part-time firefighters. Meanwhile, the state has kept tight limits on local property taxes and not all local governments received major funding from last year’s increase in state aid.
The result has been a series of tough choices. Should the part-time fire department of a small village pay for full-time firefighters? If so, village residents may have to stomach substantial cuts in other areas of the local budget or even vote to raise their own property taxes above the limits imposed by the state.
The Wisconsin Policy Forum has sought to help local officials find better alternatives. For more than a decade, our researchers have studied fire and EMS services to explore ways that local governments could collaborate with one another to deliver these critical services more effectively and efficiently. Since 2013, we have published more than 20 of these reports. Many groups and leaders talk about lowering the cost of government or making it work better, but these studies seek to deliver on that talk.
From our February study on ways to enhance collaborate on EMS services in Milwaukee to our 2022 report on police consolidation on Milwaukee County’s North Shore, most of our reports have dealt with public safety. But we have also looked at the possibility of the city of Milwaukee and Milwaukee County collaborating on back office services and at improving garbage collection in the city of Eau Claire.
Our work has taken us to communities around the state. In February, we published a report on EMS services in Lafayette County and in 2022 a study on enhanced collaboration among fire departments in the Fox Valley. In Dane County, the Forum just released a review of EMS services in Waunakee and Middleton and will soon publish a study of fire and EMS services in Sun Prairie and surrounding communities.
Our studies have contributed to notable changes. In the wake of our 2021 report on fire and EMS challenges in Ozaukee County, Mequon and Thiensville consolidated their fire and EMS services and Grafton and Saukville consolidated their fire departments.
In 2025, we will also study how communities could enhance property assessment in Milwaukee County and fire and EMS services in Walworth County. The state is now offering Innovation Grants to communities to help them study and implement service sharing and consolidation plans and recently extended the application period to April 30 for planning grants for smaller communities. This has resulted in an uptick in demand for our research on service sharing in communities around the state.
For more than a century, the Forum has focused on making government work better for residents and taxpayers, and nowhere is that more important than in potentially life-saving services like fire protection and EMS. With your help, we will continue to work toward this worthy goal.
-Jason Stein