Gary paramedics fight slashes to emergency care
“Last Saturday night, we only had one working ambulance to serve 100,000 people!”
That was Gary, Indiana, paramedic Harold Marsh, explaining why SEIU Healthcare Indiana emergency workers rejected a call for a 20% pay cut for the remainder of this year.
“And who is responding to the emergency calls when we can’t?” Marsh asked. “Do people know it might cost them four times as much to pay a private company? The mayor and his people still haven’t shown us how another sacrifice will help Gary citizens that need emergency help.”
Several years ago, an Indiana Supreme Court decision threw the state’s tax system into chaos, ordering a revamping of the system. But, instead of using the decision as an opportunity to fix the tax system, elected officials just took half steps and issued sound bites to avoid responsibility. Now, local governments throughout Indiana are in crisis.