190.015.  Petition to form, contents — ambulance district boundaries (St. Louis County) — sales tax in lieu of property tax permitted, exception St. Louis County. — 1.  Whenever the creation of an ambulance district is desired, a number of voters residing in the proposed district equal to ten percent of the vote cast for governor in the proposed district in the next preceding gubernatorial election may file with the county clerk in which the territory or the greater part thereof is situated a petition requesting the creation thereof.  In case the proposed district is situated in two or more counties, the petition shall be filed in the office of the county clerk of the county in which the greater part of the area is situated, and the commissioners of the county commission of the county shall set the petition for public hearing.  The petition shall set forth:

  (1)  A description of the territory to be embraced in the proposed district;

  (2)  The names of the municipalities located within the area;

  (3)  The name of the proposed district;

  (4)  The population of the district which shall not be less than two thousand inhabitants;

  (5)  The assessed valuation of the area, which shall not be less than ten million dollars; and

  (6)  A request that the question be submitted to the voters residing within the limits of the proposed ambulance district whether they will establish an ambulance district pursuant to the provisions of sections 190.001 to 190.090 to be known as "______ Ambulance District" for the purpose of establishing and maintaining an ambulance service.

  2.  In any county with a charter form of government and with more than one million inhabitants, fire protection districts created under chapter 321 may choose to create an ambulance district with boundaries congruent with each participating fire protection district's existing boundaries provided no ambulance district already exists in whole or part of any district being proposed and the dominant provider of ambulance services within the proposed district as of September 1, 2005, ceases to offer or provide ambulance services, and the board of each participating district, by a majority vote, approves the formation of such a district and participating fire protection districts are contiguous.  Upon approval by the fire protection district boards, subsection 1 of this section shall be followed for formation of the ambulance district.  Services provided by a district under this subsection shall only include emergency ambulance services as defined in section 321.225.

  3.  Except in any county with a charter form of government and with more than one million inhabitants, any ambulance district established under this chapter on or after August 28, 2011, may levy and impose a sales tax in lieu of a property tax to fund the district.  The petition to create the ambulance district shall state whether the district will be funded by a property or a sales tax.