Posted on 08/12/2012 4:09:31 PM PDT by BenLurkin
More than 800,000 Californians who own property in wildfire country will begin receiving bills this week for a new annual fire-protection fee, rekindling outrage among rural residents and leading to a likely lawsuit seeking to overturn the surcharge.
The fee, passed by Democrats in the Legislature and signed by Gov. Jerry Brown last year, is intended to raise an estimated $84 million in its first year for fire-prevention efforts. The annual charge can run as high as $150 for property owners with a single occupied dwelling, although there is a $35 discount for those who already pay a local tax for fire protection.
The discount will apply to about 95 percent of rural property owners, but it’s not enough to quell the anger in the parts of California where the fee will apply.
“Everybody that knows about it is upset, but I think 90 percent of the public has no idea it’s coming. It’s going to be quite a shock,” said John Little of Laytonville, chief of the Long Valley Fire Protection District in rural Mendocino County.
He said the $115 annual bill will hurt residents in his 250-square-mile district. The region, between the Mendocino National Forest and the Pacific Ocean, has a jobless rate of 18 percent and many seniors living on fixed incomes.
(Excerpt) Read more at losangeles.cbslocal.com ...
Hey, they’re just trying to depopulate the rural areas. Agenda 21 and all that, dontcha know.
GOVERNMENT: “I see you have some money there. Give it to me.”
CA has a bigger fire problem. Because of their budget problems they’re kicking criminals out of prisons and jails. Most of CA’s front line fire response is done by prisoners and the fear is there won’t be enough of them to fight fires. So now, instead of putting out fires, they will be robiing the citizens.
The dopey libs will still for them!!
Better ground the planes and let the boonies burn.... It would be cheaper in the long run. Why subsidize the free loading drug growers in the sticks?
Read in the WSJ this week that there are half the number of house fires as 30 years ago and twice the number of firefighters on the payroll....
And they want to drain the Hetch Hetchy reservoir too.
I can’t believe I’m on the same side as Nancy and Diane over that one.
I don’t see it as a bad idea____IF_____ the 84 million went to it’s designated purpose,but we all know by the time the State gets their share, the grifters get their share, and Brown’s friend get their kickbacks, there will be little going toward the purpose.
Example of the communists control of California. This State is trashed!
When did Democrats get the idea that the constitution allows them to charge fees? It’s precedent now I suppose with Obama care.
Democrats have never seen a tax increase or new tax they didn’t like.
FREE REPUBLIC resides in California.
I live here and never vote Dem, a fat lot of good it does me. I also live in the mountains and will be hit with this “fee”. It’s bad enough to still be charged property taxes on a house that’s lost more than half its value because of the policies of the liberals, now they want to soak me some more on the pretext of fighting fires. I’m forced to pay for flood insurance, too - and I’m on top of a mountain!
To appease their Green God, they’re also building giant transmission lines from the windmill and solar farms further north through my community, increasing the fire danger they now want me to pay extra for. And we don’t even get the electricity.
There’s a lot more, but don’t get me started on these bastards. They’ve taken Ronald Reagan’s once-great state and turned it into a third world crap hole.
No, but with the swarm of illegals in the last two decades, California has reached the point of no return. I truly believe it is beyond salvage.
Wow. Broadbrush much?
It can be stopped!!
Horizon 2025 Comprehensive Plan Rescinded By Baldwin County Commission
Tuesday, August 07, 2012, 6:05 PM
By Jane Nicholes, Press-Register Press-Register
BAY MINETTE, Alabama — Egged on by a large crowd invoking property rights, United Nations Agenda 21, the U.S. Constitution and even the Communist Manifesto, the Baldwin County Commission killed the Horizon 2025 comprehensive plan today.
Following the 3-1 vote, many in the audience sang "God Bless America."
Go after the people who won’t let brush and old tree clean ups.
Ruinous economic governance has its consequences.
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