More good news from the plutocrats: NYC Fire Dept to charge to respond to accidents & car fires

[Hannah Bell]

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.”

...a firefighter said he and his colleagues were surprised by the city’s proposal. “It’s a tough situation,” he said. “The city is trying to find creative ways to save civil service jobs.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/12/nyregion/12fire.html?partner=rss&emc=rss


And if you're to poor to pay?

You're criminalized & on the treadmill toward perpetual debt slavery.

Set-up: now it's jobs v. fees.

"accountable parties" -- how many people set out to have an accident or a fire?

taxing the millionaires & billionaires of NYC: not creative enough, apparently.

Bloomberg could pay the entire deficit of NYC & still have money left.

Why did you people elect this waste of space three times?

[xchrom]

1. One word: brutal. Nt

[Skittles]

2. we won't even recognize this country in 20 years n/t

[tomg]

3. I don't recognize it now. nt.

[Skittles]

5. it is certainly circling the bowl

:(

[Taitertots]

4. More Regressive Taxation from the home of the Plutocracy

Another good reason to avoid New York.

[SoCalDem]

6. I wonder what the car insurance companies will do about this

One caveat though.. Modern cars that experience a fire are probably a total loss, so maybe they felt that it was a waste of money to put out a car fire (with no person at risk)..

:shrug:

[Hannah Bell]

7. They'll use it as an excuse to jack up everyone's rates, why do you even ask the question?

I mean, it's not like New Yorkers pay taxes for fire service or anything.

Except, of course the 40% of rich fucks who own property in New York & pay not a dime of property tax because they got special exemptions.


There's one rule for the rich, and another for everyone else. They're also the cheapest bastards in the world.

People who own multiple multi-million-dollar properties scamming for a lousy $1000/year tax break.


One of Mayor Bloomberg's new commissioners is being probed in Florida for possible double-dipping -- illegally getting two property-tax breaks at once, The Post's learned.

Palm Beach County Property Appraiser's Office official Pat Poston yesterday said he was looking into how Carole Post, new head of the city Department of Information, Technology and Telecommunications, simultaneously got exemptions in Florida and New York.

Lawrence and Carole Post have received a homestead exemption for their multimillion-dollar West Palm Beach home since 2005, records show. The benefit -- granted to permanent residents only -- saved them $3,000 over four years.

At the same time, they got a property-tax rebate for their Manhattan apartment -- also granted only to full-time residents


Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/mike_aide_hit_with_tech_nical_gG5ZCML0Y6XgYx51Qjj6QN#ixzz17tdpYB94

[Smarmie Doofus]

8. What a visionary.

Let's get rid of the current political system altogether and just turn things over to Bloomberg.

>>>>Why did you people elect this waste of space three times?>>>

We elect him 'cause "when they own the information they can bend it all they want." ( John Mayer)

In other words.... we just don't know any better.

And they aim to KEEP it that way.

[blueamy66]

9. What are taxes for?

I call bullshit.

Go ahead....bill me...I'll show you my paystub as payment in full.

WTF?

[Hannah Bell]

12. taxes are so bloomberg can use them to pay his staff to run his private foundation

out of his city office.

which he did for a number of years, during which the foundation had no office, no staff, no phones, faxes or office supplies *except* what the taxpayers of nyc generously donated.

that's how rich people stay rich.

[blueamy66]

21. Okay, got it.

Thanks. :-)

[Stoic]

10. They should charge according to the vitims ability to pay.

Millionaire=$100k charge

[corpseratemedia]

11. if enough working poor and middle class new yorkers

are leaving at the rate they are now, they city will soon be bereft of service people, which, with this proposal, it should be.

the arrogant tax-dodgers (and I have a few in my distant family) can put out their own damn fires.

[no_hypocrisy]

13. Bloomberg refuses to properly fund firehouses in the City.

And expects the unfortunate victims of accidents to make up the loss.

[marmar]

14. Yet this pig still has a contingent of fans on DU.

nt

[Vinca]

15. Remember the story of the firefighters watching the house burn down

because the owner hadn't paid his $75 fee? This is not unlike the health care situation in this country where Patient A, the rich guy, gets world class treatment and Patient B, the homeless guy, gets a "sorry" at the emergency room.

[dsc]

19. actually this is completely different

in the scenario you are referring to, the people being charged paid no taxes at all to support the fire department in question. The $75 dollar fee was in lieu of taxes that their political entity (county) refused to levy to support the city fire department. In short, the person whose house burnt down refused to pay anything to support a fire department and then expected that fire department to put out a fire. In NYC, most of the people in question will have paid taxes to support a fire department and thus are entitled to service from that fire department. A case could be made about tourists but how many of them drive.

[Hannah Bell]

23. what's remarkable is that some of the people who were screaming about that case --

saying it was inhumane not to put out fires for middle-class homeowners who repeatedly refused proposals to tax themselves for fire protection --

are perfectly ok with cutting off water, fire & other basic services to poor homeowners & tenants in detroit.

[Hannah Bell]

22. no, that situation was different. NY pays taxes for public services. That county didn't.

Only the residents of the incorporated city did, even though most fire calls came from outside the city, & the county's citizens were richer than the city's.

In that case, wealthier people outside a city's jurisdiction were free-riding off a poorer city.

In this case, wealthy people are trying to foist costs of maintaining their own city's services onto the poor & middle; in addition, they are trying to jack up costs to push marginal people out.

[WinkyDink]

16. They want us to pay "FEES" ABOVE TAXES for everything: aid/protection; charter schools; roads; etc.

IT IS A GARGANTUAN, AS IN WORLD-WIDE, LOOTING AS NEVER BEFORE.
From the non-wealthy to the extremely wealthy.

The theft is moving apace, before our eyes, with the help of our elected leaders. And we are looting the Middle East, as well.

The United States stands for nothing any more, nothing but rapacious corporate (and by extension obscenely wealthy persons; e.g., the Waltons) avarice, greed, destruction, cruelty, larceny, slavery, mendaciousness, and criminality.

[Lasher]

17. A sinister trend.

Exacting tribute from people who don't live in the city, and therefore don't get to vote in city elections.

[notesdev]

18. Why even have a public FD?

This takes us back to the days of privately hired fire brigades.

If it comes out that the purpose of this is to feather pensions and keep retirement ages absurdly low, it's going to be a firestorm.

[barbtries]

20. isn't that double dipping?

i suppose someone is planning a legal challenge. these services are paid for with taxes. am i wrong??