Monday, June 15, 2009

User Fees

It looks like the City of Santa Rosa might go ahead with their plan to start charging user fees for those unfortunate enough to have the fire department respond to their homes. I'm not sure if this would only apply to medical emergencies or to any calls that fall with the fire department's purview.

I'm not quite sure what to make of this. I can understand that cities need more money and user fees are totally consistent with libertarian philosophy. It begs the question, though, of what our tax money is already paying for? Are we paying the fire department big bucks just to sit in the firehouse but have to pay extra for them to actually do something?

3 Comments:

At 12:04 AM, Anonymous John Mangels said...

Both probably valid points. We do expect the fire department to actually work for us when we support them with our taxes. And municipalities are so broke they're looking for any odd way to turn a dime.

 
At 11:06 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Here's how fire departments can raise extra money. I mean, they already have the red lights on their buildings and trucks, right? So why don't they just rent out the sidewalks in front of the fire station to some of our local "ladies" of the evening for as much money as the trade will allow? It'll give a new meaning to the term "red light district."

 
At 5:50 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Our tax money is going to scum bags like Cheesebro. In and out of office.

 

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