Wyoming Gov. Mark Gordon plans to request $5 million during the state’s upcoming legislative budget session to support local emergency response systems, lawmakers heard last week.
The money would be used to help local fire and EMS agencies “coordinate their efforts” and identify their needs within a “defined area,” Gordon’s senior policy analyst Jen Davis told the Wyoming Legislature’s Labor, Health and Social Services Committee during a meeting last week.
More specifically, Davis said, the funding would let collaborating fire and EMS agencies hire a point person to plan and coordinate regional meetings.
“Many individuals in both fire and EMS are volunteers,” Davis explained, so “they don’t often have administrative support” to help “pull people together” for discussions about needs, costs, and funding plans.
“This would give them the opportunity over the next two years to hire somebody to help support that effort,” she said.
Workforce shortage
After local emergency response agencies have come together to outline their needs and develop their funding plans, Davis said Wyoming “might have a better sense (of) the true gap that is still remaining to make that system whole and sustainable.”
It’s hard to get that information now, she noted, because “the system is so different in every location.”
“This would … put some transparency in the system to really see where we’re at,” Davis said.
The state’s emergency response system is already facing a worker shortage, Wyoming EMS Association president Luke Sypherd told the committee, citing a survey of “transporting EMS agencies” that indicates a need for almost 450 additional EMTs and paramedics in the coming year – or 40 percent of the current workforce, compared to the normal turnover rate of 20 to 30 percent.
The workforce need that the WEMSA survey outlined was “much higher than what we anticipated,” Davis said, noting that the state recently received approval to apply for EMS workforce support through the Wyoming Innovation Partnership.
The WIP program would “cover the cost” for EMT basic, advanced, and intermediate training for local first responders “so we can get more people into the workforce,” Davis said.
Committee questions
Wyoming Sen. Fred Baldwin, R-Kemmerer, asked Davis for more information about the “defined areas” that would be eligible for funding under Gordon’s proposal.
Local emergency responders will likely define those areas themselves based on their unique circumstances, she replied, pointing, for example, to agencies in Campbell and Sheridan counties, which recently consolidated in order to serve a larger, four-county area.
Other counties, like Fremont County, which is “very large,” may apply for coordination funding on their own, Davis said.
Wyoming Rep. Ben Hornok, R-Cheyenne, wondered whether Gordon could find other sources of funding to support the coordination effort, but Davis said “all of the money that came in under the American Rescue Plan Act has already been allocated.”
“All of it is already tagged for utilization through legislation that has been passed over the last couple of years,” she said. “There is not any available at this point.”
The coordination project “would probably not be eligible under ARPA” anyway, she added, because “it isn’t directly related to the COVID response.”
Wyoming has already “injected” some ARPA money into EMS programs, Davis noted, and “some of that is still being determined if it’s eligible – so it looks as if this concept would most likely not qualify under the ARPA.”
Later, Hornok clarified that he was referring to money appropriated to the governor’s office last year to help attract businesses to the state.
“Those industries do rely on EMS service,” Hornok said. “If the governor is passionate about providing good EMS service, I would just request and ask that that funding source be looked at … instead of increasing our state budget.”