Sep 22, 2025
A Chautauqua County EMS fly car is pictured.
Financially speaking, Chautauqua County’s Fly Car program is doing better than it has in the last few years.
The fly car program supplements volunteer fire departments in the county, providing an Emergency Medical Technician when volunteer EMTs may not be available. It also does ambulance transports.
For several years, the fly car program has been running a deficit, in part because of struggles getting reimbursements from insurance and Medicaid.
The program has existed since 2017 and has always been running in the red.
During the county legislature’s Public Safety, and Audit and Control committee meetings this week, Sam Zafuto, the county’s Deputy Director of Finance, said the fly car program was requesting an additional $250,000 but also requested a change of $250,000 for their revenue line.
With these two requests, no fund balance money is needed.
“At this point, the fly car program is not over budget but we’re trending in that direction. At the same time we are trending to have a surplus of revenue above what we’ve budgeted,” Zafuto said.
In September of 2024, the fly car program was running a deficit and Zafuto noted the department had to use $450,000 worth of fund balance.
“We are in a much better spot with this department than we were a year ago,” he said.
Zafuto was hesitant to guarantee they won’t have a deficit by the end of the year, but said it’s definitely trending that way.
“A lot will depend on what happens in quarter four,” he said.
Legislature Chairman Pierre Chagnon, R-Ellery, noted that when they put together the 2025 budget, there was a lot of effort focused on the fly car program, which helped them feel confident going into the year.
“It’s nice to see that our confidence is turning out to be correct,” he said.
Zafuto credited both the county’s collection agency, Professional Ambulance Billing, as well as the county doing a better job of examining what they can bill for the increase in revenue.
Legislator Dan Pavlock, R-Ellington, noted that for several years the fly car program has not been staying within its budget.
“Even if it costs us money to do this (EMT service), which is important, I just want the budgeting to be correct,” he said.
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