Pay for service firefighters?

[triforcharity]

And yet they keep turning people away like they turned me away several years ago when I needed Rabies prophylaxis and they wanted $1,700 up front for it. Now their ER will treat you (and charge you a fortune) if you are obviously going to die without immediate treatment but for anything else you are out of luck.



And yet when my friend called for an ambulance a few months ago for his girlfriend they told him to take a hike because she still owed money for a previous use (girlfriend kept trying to kill herself necessitating several hospital trips).

Holy ****, that 'aught to be illegal. This is in California?

 

[triforcharity]

Are property taxes the same for every house in america? In the UK you pay more for having more expensive houses.

No, they are based on the value of the home. But (I can only speak for Florida) here, the tax for my property is about 1,200 per year. That covers everything, schools, fire department, etc.

The school fee is a set price. IIRC, it's around 57 bucks per year.
The fire service fee (it's called a special assessment) and it is a flat rate across the board for all residents. (I live in a city, and we are protected by the city fire department, so our tazes go for our department)

I think it's like $110 per year.

 

[Travis]

This talk about subscription service is a bit different than just billing after the fact.

 

[WildCat]

This talk about subscription service is a bit different than just billing after the fact.

I really, really doubt your town is going to try a "bill after the fact" model. They will never be able to generate enough revenue that way to cover costs. IMHO you have misunderstood, and they are talking of going to a subscription service.

 

[WildCat]

No, they are based on the value of the home. But (I can only speak for Florida) here, the tax for my property is about 1,200 per year. That covers everything, schools, fire department, etc.

The school fee is a set price. IIRC, it's around 57 bucks per year.

The school fee alone here is hundreds of dollars more than your entire tax bill. I can't believe yours is so low, unless you live in some retirement community and there's only 2 students in the school.

 

[Modified]

The school fee alone here is hundreds of dollars more than your entire tax bill. I can't believe yours is so low, unless you live in some retirement community and there's only 2 students in the school.

Yeah, that doesn't sound right. I live in Florida in an area where the average age is 50 (so much higher ratio of taxpayers to students than in most places). School fees are not a flat rate and mine are $460 for the state and $360 for local, so $820 on a $1200 tax bill.

 

[Travis]

I really, really doubt your town is going to try a "bill after the fact" model. They will never be able to generate enough revenue that way to cover costs. IMHO you have misunderstood, and they are talking of going to a subscription service.

The idea I heard floating around was that the county would pay to keep the fire station open and staffed but any extra expenses would be made up by billing those they serve.

Of course if I get my way we'll continue to pay for it by property taxes. Though we'll have to form our own special community district to do so.

 

[WildCat]

The idea I heard floating around was that the county would pay to keep the fire station open and staffed but any extra expenses would be made up by billing those they serve.

Sounds like a subcription to me, not sending a bill after responding to a fire. The latter is only done if the house in question didn't pay the subscription, and the Fire Dept. has a policy of putting out the fire anyway.

 

[This is The End]

Keep me Happy and I will come and risk my life to save you and your home . **** me off and I will still respond but maybe not as fast as you would like and you lose everything and I just put water on a pile of burning ruble, of course it's still your choice

That is just a horrible way to treat people. That's how the mafia operates protection, not a legitimate government. What about people who aren't 'cheap', like those who are poor or just uninformed?

 

[cwalner]

Because the voters choose not to. As I said before, if they want to exempt themselves from the services of the fire dept. why feel sorry for them when their house goes up in flames? Anyone who wants fire service can still get it.

You seemed to miss my point.

I was trying to point out that if they wanted, they could have voted to raise county taxes to contract for fire service from the city. They are not outside of the taxable area of the local government. Just outside the primary jurisdiction of the fire department. It is not uncommon for small towns or unincorporated areas to contract with larger cities for fire (or even police in some cases). The point is in those cases, they are still taxed by the local government (the county) to pay another local government (the city) to cover outside thier primary jusisdiction.

 

[DavidS]

The last several times the fire department came to my place of work to conduct an inspection, there were 6 members and they came in a ladder truck. How is that cost effective.

No additional vehicle need be purchased and maintained for inspector transportation.

No additional crew need by hired to conduct inspections without splitting an emergency response crew that can respond from the inspection location as easily as from the station.

Fuel savings may be negligible anyway; the trip may serve maintenance, exercise, and testing needs for the big truck.

Full-crew deployment to the inspection is an opportunity for crew and equipment drill, inspection, and testing.

 

[kmortis]

I've moved the school tax discussion off over here.

Replying to this modbox in thread will be off topic  Posted By: kmortis