Emergency medical services' unhappiness with the name attached to Pennsylvania's revised occupational-privilege tax are justified in their opinion. The name attached to the new levy — Emergency and Municipal Services Tax — has led to confusion, the result being some people's refusal to donate to, or buy membership subscriptions from, community non-profit, volunteer ambulance services.

Seeing "EMS" used in reference to the tax has caused many people to assume that the tax money being collected — the legal taxing limit is $52 a year — is producing adequate funds for ambulance services and thus traditional donations and subscriptions are no longer necessary.

Unfortunately for those units, that isn't the case. In most municipalities, most of the money being collected doesn't actually go to those units; in some communities, none does.

Receiving little or none of that money, coupled with the confusion that has negatively impacted donations and membership subscriptions, could eventually challenge services' ability to remain in operation — and that isn't a healthy prospect.

Thus, the name of the tax should be changed; going back to the old name would be preferable to retaining the new one and would more accurately describe the tax.

The state General Assembly's handling of the tax should have raised the anger of voters from the get-go. The tax was a product of the legislature's work on a financial-recovery plan for Pittsburgh — this provision spilling beyond the Steel City boundaries.

It's safe to say that hardly anyone in the state knew that the new levy was under legislative consideration prior to it being enacted. State taxpayers didn't have the opportunity to voice their opinions about it until after the tax was signed into law.

Meanwhile, the legislators responsible for dreaming up and naming the new statewide municipal money-raising measure have never bragged about their respective roles.

All considered, the fact that the legislature tied "EMS" to the levy without stipulating that any of the money collected would actually have to go to an ambulance service raises the logical question of whether lawmakers hoped to disguise the most important details of the tax — that the tax really wasn't much different than its predecessor levy, except that it was a vehicle for collecting much more money.

Like its predecessor, the EMS tax is paid by people who work in the municipality where it is in effect. Under the occupational-privilege tax law, workers paid $5 to the municipality and $5 to the school district in which the municipality was located. Under the new tax law, as much as $47 can be levied on behalf of the municipality, with an additional $5 going to the school district.

Not every municipality chose to levy the new tax for 2005, but many of those that didn't were unable to resist the temptation of acquiring the additional money for this year — or, if they enacted a lower tax for 2005, to increase their take from workers in 2006.

There still is no requirement for municipalities to give any of the EMS money to an EMS — but many people are refusing to acknowledge that, as shown by their decision not to contribute to their local ambulance service or buy an ambulance service subscription.

Lawmakers should rename the tax for 2007. They also should resolve that there won't be any more sneaky, behind-the-scenes tax decisions like occurred regarding the tax in question.

— J.R.K.