The Newtown Township Ambulance Squad is financially strapped and desperately needs more public funding to continue answering life-saving emergency calls. Emily Rizzo wrote about the funding for WHYY.

According to the leaders of the ambulance squad that serves Newtown Borough and Newtown Township, they are facing the same financial issues as other emergency medical services in the Philadelphia region and across the state.

The cost of medical equipment has gone up and many staff members have left for better-paying jobs. Meanwhile, the squad has a funding model that is mostly reliant on insurance collections and patient co-pays, instead of local taxes.

“I’ve been in emergency medical services for 27 years and never in a million years did I think that we would be in the staffing and funding crisis that we’re in now,” said Evan Resnikoff, chief of operations for Newtown Ambulance and president of the Bucks County EMS Chiefs’ Association.

He believes that more dedicated funding from the township would help deal with this issue. Now, at his request, Newtown Township has put it to voters to decide if they want to approve a roughly 6 percent tax increase that would help fund the ambulance squad.

Read more about the Newtown Township Ambulance Squad in WHYY.