7. Fiscal and Budget

The Joint Board shall approve the budgets of both the fire protection service and of the ambulance service each year prior to September 21 to provide each participating government entity adequate notice for their budget preparations.

The Joint Board shall approve the fiscal expenditures for the fire protection service and charge each participating town and · village proportionally to their share of the District’s equalized property value, providing the total budget does not exceed 1/4 mil of their equalized property value.

The Joint Board shall approve the fiscal expenditures of the ambulance service and charge each Town and Village proportionately to their share of the ambulance service formula. The formula is based on each Town’s and Village’s proportion of their equalized property value adjusted based on their proportion of ambulance calls over the immediately preceding three years. Those having more calls will pay more and those having fewer calls will pay less.

The payment by participating governmental entities will be due each year one-half by January 31 and one-half by April 30; any late payment will be subject to a monthly interest charge of 1.5% of 18% annually.