Rising Hegemon
I have a question about the Tennessee man whose house burnt down because firefighters refused to put out the flames because he didn't pay the annual service "fee" for fire protection. I assume this guy pays property taxes to some entity: the state? the county? the municipality? And I read that the city is collecting this "fee" from people who live outside the city limits.
Just one question? How come this is called a "fee" and not a "tax"?
7 comments:
Because it's voluntary. Taxes are universally levied.
I'm not so sure about that. I work for an insurer and we collect a variety of taxes / fees / surcharges on behalf of various jurisdictions and then remit them. Taxes and surcharges are generally levied as some percent of the underlying charge. Fees are usually a flat charge regardless of the underlying. Property taxes are based on the local mil rate and the value of your home. This is a flat $75, whether you live in a trailer or a mansion. The happy, special thing about fees from the POV of a jurisdiction is that they get to collect $$$ without "raising taxes" and they usually slip-slide right through without getting the attention tax changes do. Sometimes they don't even need legislation to change, they can just be changed by committee.
73% of the country is covered by volunteer firefighters. I happen to work for a fire district that was chartered by the state in 1883 and was granted taxing capability. We serve the town but were are not part of the town government. Our taxes are separate from the town tax. But we would never refuse to respond, we never check to see if the taxes were paid first.
This fee for service is more prevalent in the south. It also fits in well with the GOP and Libertarians theory of limited government and drowning government services in a bathtub. You are on your own.
Sorry, but some things cannot be privatized. Fire, Rescue, Police - we need those departments to be there for all of us, not just those who can or are willing to pay. That is what taxation is all about. Spreading the cost among the many in case any of us need the service. Refer to the recent case in Pennsylvania and the privatized prisons. The judges were caught taking kick backs for each person sent to prison. And these were juveniles who did not necessarily belong in prison.
because he is in Tn magic LOW TAX 'heaven'.
I live in Yuma County, Arizona. There is no county fire services. We pay an annual fee to a private company that provides fire department and ambulance services. These services/fees are optional.
This year I paid $514. If I had chosen not to subscribe to the services and not paid the $514 and had needed the fire department services, they would have come, fought the fire and billed me for the cost of the service.
I would rather have a fire department run by the county and pay for it with taxes.
BTW, there is no annual fee for the ambulance services in my case because ambulance services are covered by my health insurance.
Oh, If you find a rattlesnake in your yard, you call 911 and the fire department will come out, capture it and return it to the desert.
how many angels are on the tip of a pinhead?
immaterial to the mindset of those who spout if you don't pay, you don't play...which has made a lot of insurance cos. rich. vox
It's pretty simple. Municipalities do not have the ability to tax people who don't live in their jurisdiction. This guy lived outside the town limits.
My County has a confusing patchwork of City Fire services and rural Fire Districts, with some of our smaller towns contracting with the local FD even as my City supplies water services to people outside city limits. And charges 'fees' and not 'taxes' in doing so. But almost everyone is covered. But even in Blue Washington there are some odd holes, the State Forest Service firefighters are mostly not equipped or trained to fight the more difficult type of structure fires and our Fire District folk (lots of them volunteers) are not equipped or trained to fight fast moving brush and forest fires. They cooperate where they can and you can imagine the frustration when State Truck drives by your at risk house en route to fighting a forest fire up the road. And yes the owners of designated timberland pay a dedicated tax expressly for that purpose
It is that old 'No taxation without representation' thing.
And while I don't have any sympathy for the dickhead Fischer who is publically arguing that letting this guys house burn down was an actual Christian WWJD act, because that it wasn't, I do have some for the firefighters. Because you can bet big money that the town's insurance coverer would have denied any injury claims made incident to an unauthorized firefighting attempt. It is shocking how easy it is to get fired from your job for being the Good Samaritan and leaving your assigned post. (It is even worse in the military where you can win a medal and a prison sentence for the same act.)
Post a Comment