Politics

📍 North Royalton voters to decide EMS levy to add three paramedics

North Royalton, Ohio • October 25, 2026 • By Press Pass USA

Editorial illustration: an ambulance at a fire station in an Ohio suburb

Illustration: Press Pass USA

North Royalton voters will decide November 3 whether to renew and increase the city's emergency medical services levy, creating a five-year, 2-mill tax expected to generate about $2.27 million annually and fund three additional firefighter-paramedics.

Issue 57 would renew the existing 1.7 mills and add 0.3 mill, for a 2-mill levy covering tax year 2027 with collections starting in 2028, according to cleveland.com's reporting. The Cuyahoga County Fiscal Officer estimates the levy would cost $57 a year for each $100,000 of a home's market value. The current 1.7-mill levy expires at the end of 2027.

The case for the increase is call volume: in his first State of the City address, Mayor Marnecheck said the Fire Department responded to 4,416 calls in 2025, an 8.1% increase over the previous year, with emergency medical services accounting for roughly 75 to 80% of calls. If approved, the additional revenue would fund three more firefighter-paramedics to increase daily staffing, the mayor said — about $1.67 a month for a $200,000 home on the added portion.

The property tax is not the EMS fund's only support: the city's 2024 audit shows the fund received about $1.82 million in property-tax revenue and $2.22 million in transfers from the General Fund, against about $4.1 million in expenditures.

Sources: cleveland.com, via EMS1 and JEMS (Oct 24, 2026); Royalton Recorder, State of the City address (2026).