Establishes the volunteer and municipal ambulance services grant program

◆ The sponsor's argument

Why Michelle Hinchey says this is needed

New York's rural emergency medical services (EMS) system is in crisis. It faces severe funding challenges from inadequate reimbursement rates and overreliance on strained municipal funding, staffing difficulties and declining volunteerism, and infrastructure and communications prob- lems such as aging medical equipment and vehicles or poor cell phone and radio service. The State's own Rural Ambulance Task Force, in its report released in Spring, 2026, characterized the rural EMS system as "teetering on the brink of collapse." Several approaches are needed to address the severe structural weaknesses of the current system, including but not limited to existing legislation related to reimbursement rates, defining EMS as an essential service, and other policy and funding changes. Capital costs are a particularly difficult problem. The need for large- scale purchases, whether in specialized vehicles or to acquire or repair customized buildings, can disrupt rural municipal budgets that are often under $5M for all purposes, and with EMS funding often falling under fire districts whose annual funding is under $ 1M. At the same time, private equity consolidation of both private ambulance companies and ambulance manufacturers has driven up the cost for local governments to either contract out services or to purchase or repair their own equip- ment for municipal companies. Fortunately there are successful existing models we can learn from to assist our financially stressed rural EMS companies. The Volunteer Fire Infrastructure & Response Equipment (V-FIRE) Grant Program was created in the 2023-24 enacted budget in response to similar challenges volun- teer fire companies face in our towns and villages. Fire companies, like EMS companies, have high capital costs for complex building infras- tructure and specialized vehicles and technology; and like EMS compa- nies, private equity consolidation in the fire truck market has further driven up acquisition costs, The V-FIRE program provides capital grants to volunteer fire companies for such purposes and as of June, 2026 has released an RFA for $25M in FY 25-26 funding. V-FIRE has been a tremen- dous boon to our small, rural fire companies, and can serve as a model for addressing EMS capital needs. With that in mind, this bill creates a similar program for volunteer and municipal EMS companies. Such companies, or local governments applying on their behalf as is permitted in V-FIRE, would be eligible for funding for capital costs including acquisition or maintenance of buildings, equipment, technology, or vehicles. The program would run through the Department of Health, as New York's primary EMS regulatory agency, including requiring the Department to publish awardee information publicly, Like V-FIRE, the program would be subject to annual budget appropriations.

This is the sponsor's own case for the bill, quoted from their memorandum. It is not Agora's description of what the bill does.