Worcester’s 2027 Budget Meeting Surfaces $338,000 Unbi

Roughly $338,000 in ambulance calls that were never billed sat on a shelf for a year and a half while the service quietly lost its Medicare billing privileges. Worcester’s town board found out the hard way, line by line, as they started hammering out the 2027 budget late last month.

The figure came up inside a meeting that looked ordinary on the surface: a special town board session to start the 2027 budget. It turned into something closer to an accounting autopsy. The ambulance service owed Worcester a $10,000 loan it can’t repay yet, and Worcester sits dead last on the repayment list. Flambeau gets paid back first.

Quick Answer: At Worcester’s July 27 special town board meeting, board members walked through a 2027 budget of roughly $992,000 and surfaced a long-hidden ambulance billing crisis: about $338,000 in calls went unbilled for roughly 18 months while the service’s Medicare and VA billing was cut off. A new billing service charging 8% just sent those bills out and collected about $11,000 in the first payments. The service found no evidence of fraud and canceled a planned forensic audit, but it still owes Worcester a $10,000 loan and is repaying other towns first.

What Actually Happened at the Worcester Budget Meeting

Last updated: August 2026

It’s 11 o’clock and the call to order opens the 2027 proposed budget work. The board decides to run down the revenue side first because, as one member put it, revenue never takes that long. Then they hit expenses and the road and equipment money.

The draft budget lands around $992,820, according to the numbers on the table. The board is sitting on roughly $130,000 in surplus on the public-charges line, mostly from a land sale, and there’s already about $48,000 sitting in a capital reserve account. The open question is whether to shovel another $100,000 into that reserve or spend it on a grader, more paving, or a down payment on equipment.

Where the Money Came From

Most of the revenue story is straightforward. Property taxes, NFL settlement money pegged near $33,200, interest income, and timber receipts that run to roughly $13,000. The board flags one curiosity: tax collection fees that could creep from about $4,400 toward $6,000, or even higher, if the county keeps raising its rate year after year.

The land sale dominates the public-charges line. The town sold a parcel of Musser Lake shoreline land — the same kind of Musser Lake public access deal we flagged back in July — and the surveyor’s tab for that deal was about $9,000. That sale is what makes the surplus possible.

Fire Calls That Don’t Get Paid

Fire call billing is its own headache. The town has taken in roughly $12,500 in fire call income so far this year, with about $7,500 still outstanding for 2026 and another $7,220 hanging over from 2025. Two of those older bills are on payment plans at $200 a month. A couple more are from Price Electric, totaling about $2,750 across three years, and nobody expects to collect them.

One board member described chasing an out-of-state number with no address and no return calls. The board is proposing to budget $20,000 for fire call expenses next year, up from where they’re tracking now, on the theory that calls spread evenly across a full year should land closer to that figure.

The Ambulance Crisis Buried in the Budget

This is the part that should worry every town in the county. Worcester gives the ambulance service $60,000 a year through per-capita funding, and it loaned the service another $10,000 when the shortfall showed up. The service is making payroll, but barely, and it does not have the cash to pay back any of those loans yet.

Here’s the sequence of events, as the board laid it out from the meeting floor. Problems started sometime in mid-to-late 2022 and came to a head about a year ago. The nonprofit ambulance corporation failed to file its required annual reports with the state and was, in the board’s words, “terminated for a while.” Its VA billing got shut off. Medicare got shut off too. And board members said that Medicare cutoff, which ran roughly 18 months, was hidden from the towns.

Why the Bills Went Out Late

The previous service director didn’t keep up with the billing. When the board started asking pointed questions, the director announced she was retiring, and a couple of weeks later she died. That part can’t be changed, one member noted.

The service brought in an outside billing firm that specializes in ambulance work and charges 8%. That firm sent out a total of about $338,000 in bills representing calls that went unbilled from 2025 and into 2026. As of a couple of weeks ago, the first payments had come back: about $11,000 total.

Medicare and VA billing is exacting work. Every insurer has its own codes and procedures, and a misplaced comma gets a claim rejected without a clear explanation. The board’s view is that the 8% fee is a bargain if it gets the claims right the first time and actually collects.

The Forensic Audit That Got Canceled

The towns budgeted $20,000 for a forensic audit of the service. What the investigators found was a failure to do the work, not fraud. With no evidence of wrongdoing, the board canceled the audit.

The service now has two part-time service directors learning each other’s jobs, and it’s committing to a regular annual audit — something that was dropped more than a decade ago when a prior chair decided audit expense wasn’t necessary.

Who Gets Paid Back First

Five or six towns each loaned the ambulance service $10,000. When repayment starts, it won’t happen evenly. The board said Flambeau needs its money back the most, so Flambeau goes first. Worcester needs it the least, so Worcester waits at the end of the line.

That ordering is a small mercy for a town that can weather the wait, but it’s also a reminder that the whole district shares the same exposure. It’s the same spiraling rural EMS cost problem we’ve covered across Price County. The service pays about $40,000 a month in payroll and related costs and took in only about $11,000 last month. The per-capita money comes in at the start of the year and gets drawn down over twelve months, but it sits in segregated grant and donation accounts that can’t be touched for payroll.

One Bright Spot: New Ambulances

There’s a silver lining. The service bought a new ambulance last year and another about two years before that, sped up by a government grant. That means the fleet is good for roughly seven or eight years before the next purchase comes due.

The board’s read is that the service has likely found all the problems and fixed them, and the next couple of months will tell. If a reasonable share of the newly billed calls comes back, the service should be in decent shape.

What the Road Money Reveals

The grader is the oldest, highest-hour piece of equipment the town owns, and it’s also the most expensive thing on the list. About $100,000 doesn’t go far as equipment money, the board conceded — it’s a down payment at best. One member argued for keeping some cash in reserve against a natural disaster, like losing a string of culverts to a big storm.

The board also talked about whether to keep paying the county to collect the town’s taxes or bring the work back in-house. The county is switching billing programs, so the town would train on one system only to switch again. The tentative call: wait a year, get things fully under control, and revisit the decision around March with a firm answer by July.

Insurance and Utilities: Small Wins

Insurance came in at about $15,000 this year, actually down from $16,603 in 2025, helped by two audit refunds. The board still budgets $17,000 for next year on the assumption rates go up. Utility billing is getting simpler too — the town is merging town hall and highway building utilities under one line instead of guessing how to split a single meter three ways.

Fire protection runs about $45,500 a year, and the board expects the real numbers to land around September.

What Happens Next

This is a draft, not a final budget. The town will pull in actual fire protection and ambulance numbers in September, then the county’s tax collection contract question gets a decision window next spring. It’s the kind of small-town money story that sits right alongside our Flock camera coverage in the broader transparency file. The capital reserve decision — whether to add $100,000 or spend it on the grader — is still open.

The real watch item is the ambulance service. The next couple of months determine whether the new billing push actually turns that $338,000 into cash. If it does, the towns get repaid. If it doesn’t, the service is back to making $40,000-a-month payroll on an $11,000 month.

Worcester may be last in line for its $10,000, but it’s the town that surfaced the problem. That’s worth something, even if it doesn’t pay the grader bill.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why is Worcester’s ambulance service behind on billing?

The service went roughly 18 months without properly billing for calls while its Medicare and VA billing privileges were cut off, a fact board members said was hidden from the towns. A new billing service has now sent out about $338,000 in previously unbilled claims.

How much money does the ambulance service owe Worcester?

Worcester loaned the service $10,000 and also contributes $60,000 a year in per-capita funding. The service is making payroll but doesn’t yet have the cash to repay the loan, and it’s repaying other towns first.

Was there fraud in the ambulance service’s finances?

No. A planned forensic audit was canceled after investigators found the problem was a failure to do the billing work rather than fraud.

What is Worcester’s 2027 budget estimate?

The draft budget runs to roughly $992,000, with about $130,000 in surplus on the public-charges line from a land sale. The board is deciding whether to add $100,000 to a capital reserve or spend it on equipment and roads.

Will the ambulance calls get billed now?

The service hired an outside billing firm charging 8% that has submitted the outstanding claims and collected about $11,000 in the first payments. The next couple of months will show whether collection picks up.

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