Relating to emergency management services and emergency medical services and including applicability provisions

The bill also specifies that the local emergency management commission is a municipality for purposes of Code chapter (local budgets).9 establishes the composition of each local emergency management commission to be a member of the board of supervisors, the sheriff, and the mayor from each city within the county. The bill modifies the composition of each commission to be the members of the board of supervisors, the mayor from each city located in whole or in part within the county, and the president of the board of directors of each school district for which the school district’s administrative office is located in the county. The bill also specifies that the sheriff shall be a nonvoting member who serves as the commission’s chairperson. The bill specifies that in any action taken by the commission, the members of the board of supervisors shall constitute one voting unit, the mayors of all cities in the county shall constitute one voting unit, and the presidents of the school district boards of directors shall constitute one voting unit. Each voting unit shall have a single vote and no action shall be valid except by the vote of not less than two-thirds of the voting units. The majority vote of the members present of each unit determines the vote of the unit. The bill also provides that operations of the commission, except for certain budgeting activities, may be undertaken by an executive committee consisting of one member from each of the voting units. Executive committee members are selected by membership of each voting unit. The sheriff serves as president of the executive committee, but is an advisory, nonvoting member. Under the bill, the executive committee shall have the authority to call a commission meeting at any time and is required to call a commission meeting if either the governor issues a proclamation of a state of disaster emergency in the county or the president of the United States declares a major disaster in the county. Code chapter 422D authorizes counties to impose a property tax levy, an income surtax, or a combination of both taxes within the county, excluding those areas within a benefited emergency medical services district under Code chapter 357F, to be used for specified emergency medical services costs, if the taxes are approved at election.6. The bill also provides that if a commission is meeting the financial obligations for implementation of its local emergency management program and operation of the local emergency management agency, the commission may reserve an amount of unobligated and unencumbered funds, excluding amounts reserved or obligated under the capital improvement plan, as required under the bill, for expenditure obligations in a future fiscal year, not to exceed an amount equal to percent of the local emergency management agency’s approved budget for the applicable fiscal year. In addition, the bill allows the commission to reserve an amount not to exceed percent of the annual capital improvement budget for operations expenditure obligations in a future fiscal year. As part of the local emergency management agency’s budgeting process, the bill requires the commission to adopt a capital improvement plan that identifies large expenditures or capital improvement projects and the funding sources and financing of such projects. The local emergency management agency’s annual budgeting process must also include evaluation of the activities undertaken and the progress made under the capital improvement plan. The bill applies to budgets for property taxes due and payable in fiscal years beginning on or after July 1, 2024.