CITIES AND TOWNS THAT ARE DESPERATE TO MAINTAIN their expanded and bloated government services are toying with the idea of charging defenseless citizens for sending fire trucks and police cars to their aid.
Duluth, Minnesota is the latest one that is considering this practice. The News Tribune is reporting:
City administrators are contemplating charging homeowners or drivers a flat $500 fee when firefighters extinguish a fire at a home, extract someone from a mangled car, or if police have to investigate a car accident.
While the fire response and vehicle extraction would apply to everyone, the plan to charge to investigate car accidents would only be assessed to non-residents, if the city can legally pass an ordinance that differentiates between the two groups, Papas said.
“I don’t like it,” said Councilor Sharla Gardner. “People are already paying for those services through their taxes. I don’t think it’s at all fair.”
Councilor Jim Stauber said the city’s administration should focus on cost-cutting, not charging residents more. “I just think it’s a very bad idea,” he said. He also feared that once implemented, fees would end up rising annually.
DOWN IN FLORIDA, HOWEVER, SIMILAR TRIAL-BALLOONS have become lead balloons and are crashing on the heads of the people who are proposing them.
Several central Florida municipalities were considering imposing “fees” for calling out the fire department, but they are backing down on that idea in the face of strong opposition from the taxpayers and their elected representatives.
The Orlando Sentinal tells us:
The concept of fire fees is going down in flames.
Sanford became the latest to halt its investigation into a fire-fee system. Residents packed City Commission chambers Monday night. The prevailing sentiment? “A fee is a fee is a fee is a tax,” said Sanford Mayor Linda Kuhn, who voted with the city’s four other commissioners against imposing new fire fees.
Several other cities are shunnng this idea also, including Casselberry, Lake Springs, Winter Garden and others. The residents are adamant about not sending more money to government and many consider fire fees nothing more than a shell game to get around the will of voters who wanted to pay less in taxes. “It’s basically a backdoor way to raise taxes on the citizens,” Casselberry City Commissioner Jon Miller said.
The Sentinal adds: There was also some cynicism about the fact that many cities that were supposed to be cutting expenses paid big bucks for a consulting firm to put together fire-assessment plans. Sanford paid almost $90,000. “I just feel that was quite excessive,” resident Wanda Chandler said.
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