The department of health and human services shall assist in the training of emergency medical services personnel of certain emergency medical services operations as determined by the department and financially shall assist certain emergency medical services operations as determined by the department. Assistance provided under this section must be within the limits of legislative appropriation. The department shall adopt criteria for eligibility for assistance in the training of emergency medical services personnel of various types of emergency medical services operations. The department may establish minimum and maximum amounts of financial assistance to be provided to an emergency medical services operation under this section. If applications for financial assistance exceed the amount of allocated and available funds, the department may prorate the funds among the applicants in accordance with criteria adopted by the department. No more than one-half of the funds appropriated by the legislative assembly each biennium and allocated for training assistance may be distributed in the first year of the biennium. For emergency medical service operations subject to section 23-27-07, after June 30, 2025, financial assistance provided by this section must be distributed to the political subdivision having ownership of the licensed ambulance service or the political subdivision responsible for the emergency medical service program for the service area.