Posted on 12/07/2011 7:30:34 AM PST by SeekAndFind
The last time this happened, our thread ran for more than 1,100 comments. To refresh your memory: The city charges a $75 fee up front for firefighter services throughout the year. Pay the fee and the F.D. will show up and douse the flames that are consuming your home. Don’t pay and the F.D. will show up and … watch it burn. I can understand a policy in which paying the fee gives you priority over a non-payer if your house and their house are on fire simultaneously and the department has to choose which to respond to. And I can understand a policy where paying a small flat fee discharges you from further responsibility for the cost of fighting the fire whereas a non-payer is forced to reimburse the department for all of their expenses afterward. In that case, the fee operates as de facto fire insurance. What I don’t understand is a policy where the F.D. will show up to a blaze but give the non-paying owner no option to get them to fight it. If the owner’s middle class, he’ll likely have some savings with which to reimburse the department for the cost; if the owner’s poor, he could agree to have his wages garnished going forward to partially reimburse them. Either way, the resulting hardship should be enough of a deterrent to encourage people to pay the fee ahead of time.
If you disagree, then should the fee simply be mandated as a tax? All this is, really, is an analogue for the health-care debate. We don’t let doctors opt to let poor people suffer in an emergency just because they don’t have insurance. Why let a family go homeless?
Again - The Fire Department is supported by LOCAL TAXES that are already collected.
http://ppjg.wordpress.com/2010/10/06/letting-homes-burn-in-tennessee-an-ongoing-problem/
“And according to the above article, Homeowner Insurance reimburses the Department for responding, regardless of the whether a fee is paid or not.
Apparently Obion Fire Department received over $40K in grants for 2008 – that is approximately 10% of the money needed to cover one year’s cost. Wonder why their budget is not online so residents can see where that slush fund is distributed?
Perhaps the most interesting part of this on-going saga is the fact that in July of ’09 there was a proposal to take care of this issue:”
“When no County Official or Fire Chief supported the concept of raising taxes the motion was tabled to solve the issue:”
Why would the Fire Chief do this? Could it possibly be that there is further taxation (fees/fines) if the home is not cleaned up in the appropriate timeframe?
Tango Sierra tambien.
Can I send you my house insurance bills?
People who don’t pay are DEADBEATS
Communities get free labor with a volunteer force but the companies need $ to maintain equipment buildings etc
If it wasn’t a volunteer force they would be paying taxes much higher than the fee
If those firefighters are not being paid by the taxes of the people and are only getting the $75 here and there, then their pay, benefits and retirements should reflect that wit hough any ability to work overtime to bloat the retirements.
Maybe they should sight him for having a open fire without a permit.
If those firefighters are not being paid by the taxes of the people and are only getting the $75 here and there, then their pay, benefits and retirements should reflect that wit hough any ability to work overtime to bloat the retirements.
Why let a family go homeless?
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Why indeed? That’s why we have welfare, right? So. Are you arguing we need MORE welfare? We need MORE taxes to pay for the stupid mistakes of trailer dwellers?
Or do you favor MORE LAWS? We need more laws to force stupid people to pay taxes to protect themselves from their stupid actions?
Money. In my area we're lucky to fund ONE fire department. We do 4 "boot drives" a year, where we stand in the middle of the road and beg for money from people in the community so that we'll have enough equipment to do our job if it becomes necessary. We also hold 2-4 dinner/dance benefit gatherings and we were lucky enough to receive a Federal grant for $50,000 a couple of years ago that allowed us to buy a used fire truck.
Sorry, but the problem here is the cheap person who did not pay for the service.
America becomes more like Rome every day.
The trailer was not in their service area. The offered service outside of their district. If you pay for it.
those firefighters are probably NOT being paid at all and are most likely volunteers.
My dad was a volunteer fire fighter for 50 years. Never in my experience has anything like this ever happened in my town or even in my county. It is so disgusting to think that human beings would stand and watch a catastrophe occur in this country and not help. God help us all, if we have descended to this level as Americans.
No, the problem is that the government, at all levels, is incapable of prioritizing what it should spend its money on. The cost of fire protection is not significant. This is likely something that *should* be supported by taxes, and as I understand it in the vast majority of cases it is.
I’ll bet their mailbox was full of checks for $75 this week!
i always try to throw a tenner into the boot whenever I see a boot drive. that said, most voluteer fire companies in CT get money fromthe town, state, etc., and respond on all calls. but I recognize that if people have the right to self-determination, than I have to respect choices that may puzzle me. I doubt that nobody in that area doesn’t know that if you donn’t pay your dues, that you dont’ get helped. and if you don’t insure your car and it gets totalled, the government isn’t going to step in and replace it for you.
the residents chose this method of providing fire services, and they are free to change it. but for now, it is what it is, and i’m sure everybody knows it. if you knowingly take a risk and it backfires, i might feel for you, but i certainly wouldn’t want to force you to change to meet my standards.
someone smarter than I said that if folks knew they could get srevice by not paying the $75, then only a fool would pay, but that if they knew that they WOULDN’T get service without paying, only a fool WOULDN’T pay.
Sounds like the people in the area need to take it to a vote to see if they want their county or township to add fire service as part of their property taxes.
"The taxpayer" did not pay for the equipment and personnel.
The people who paid the $75 paid for it.
If nobody paid, there would be no fire department.
I take it you are for a federal program that provides "free" firefighting services for everyone?
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