Planned N.Y. Fire Dept. Fees Criticized

[alp227]

Source: The New York Times

A plan by the New York Fire Department to allay severe budget cuts by charging motorists up to $490 to respond to accidents and car fires has touched off blistering criticism and calls for the City Council to outlaw the policy.

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, nevertheless, is embracing the new fee proposal, which City Hall officials said would begin on July 1 and raise about $1.5 million annually.

The mayor, speaking on a weekly radio show on Friday, said there were few other palatable options for firefighters who are facing the challenge of doing more work with fewer resources.

Jason Post, a spokesman for the mayor, wrote in an e-mail on Saturday: “Other cities bill motorists and their insurance companies to recoup the costs of providing services that are commonly covered by automobile insurance companies, and now New York City will, too. We are going to search for other ways to shift costs away from overburdened taxpayers and towards accountable parties.”

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/12/nyregion/12fire.html

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This has been tried in small-town America - and failed.

[dkf]

1. I wouldn't equate the two...

This proposal looks more like how you get a bill for using an ambulance. They won't decline to come, they just send a bill after.

[ManiacJoe]

2. The city chooses to underfund the fire department and

it is the fault of the residents?!?!?! NYC needs smarter politicians.

[redirish28]

3. What are our taxes going for now at days? Isn't that why ones pays

city and state taxes?


First that fire company watched the house burn down. (Can't remember where.) And now this.

[aquart]

4. All because they refuse to tax the greedy, unpatriotic rich.

I, however, am fine with it.

[groundloop]

5. IMHO emergency services should be paid for with tax dollars

It's pretty simple, communities are expected to provide certain services to its residents and those services cost a certain number of dollars. When that community isn't raising enough revenue to pay for those services this happens.

I guess this is a basic differentiator between repukes and Democrats - we believe a government should collect enough taxes to pay for reasonable services for citizens, and that people who are able to pay their fair share should. Repukes are greedy and don't want their tax dollars to help others.

I view stuff like this as another way of sticking it to lower and middle income Americans so the rich don't have to pay their fair share of taxes. $490 to an average American is difficult to pay, to the wealthy it's chump change.

[wackywaggin]

6. Just another way to screw

the poor and the working class people.

heretic Wack!!:0)

[awoke_in_2003]

7. yep...

we pay taxes for things like police and fire departments. This nation is going crazy.

[WestSeattle2]

8. In Seattle we pay taxes for sports stadiums, symphony halls,

public art in sewage treatment plants, umbrellas at crosswalks, etc.

Money for essential services, such as 9-1-1 and sheriff deputies, are funded with special levies.

[pdefalla]

9. Privatizing the Fire Department

is next. Some group will come in and offer the same service for less, and the once-proud NYFD will sell this service off to the highest bidder, and pretty soon you will be left in the street to die unless you can pay (sort of like transplant patients are dying in Arizona). Why shouldn't traffic accidents be a source of revenue for some company? Cancer is....
After that, we'll see private police departments.
This is not a stretch. We already have private prisons.

[area51]

10. +1

This is a hallmark of a nation devolving into barbarism. This isn't too surprising as we don't have a right to health care in this country.

[sarcasmo]

11. The town of Wyoming Michigan tried this, Bloomberg needs to ask them how it turned out.

[sweetapogee]

12. let's see

Population of Wyoming Mich: 70,000
Population of New York City: 8,400,000

New York City can learn a lot about running a city from Wyoming Michigan, sure.