Grover Norquist's Wet Dream --- A Crash. A Call for Help. Then, a Bill.

[kpete]

A Crash. A Call for Help. Then, a Bill.
By CHRISTOPHER JENSEN
Published: September 3, 2010


ABOUT a year ago Cary Feldman was surprised to find himself sprawled on the pavement in an intersection in Chicago Heights, Ill., having been knocked off his motor scooter by the car behind him. Five months later he got another surprise: a bill from the fire department for responding to the scene of the accident.


Steve Kagan for The New York Times
VICTIM Cary Feldman paid for the dispatch of a fire truck he didn't request.

“I had no idea what the fire truck was there for,” said Mr. Feldman, of nearby Matteson. “It came, it looked and it left. I was not hurt badly. I had scratches and bruises. I did not go to the hospital.”

Mr. Feldman had become enmeshed in what appears to be a nascent budget-balancing trend in municipal government: police and fire departments have begun to charge accident victims as a way to offset budget cuts.

more:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/05/automobiles/05CRASHTAX.html?_r=2&hp
via:
Reagan Revolution Contract on America Continues, Government Drowned in a Bathtub: Police and fire departments have begun to charge accident victims as a way to offset budget cuts.
The wet dream of Grover Norquist. The end of public services for the common good as a government responsibility.
http://www.buzzflash.com/

[blondeatlast]

1. Let's give Norquist and his believers and defenders

their own little piece of America and let them live in their govinabathtub Utopia.

They'd all end up slaughtering each other and we'd all be better off.

[Greybnk48]

2. This is not real new where I live.

In 2002 or 2003 my son rear-ended a pickup truck at a stop light. 3 squad cars showed up, a fire truck and the first responders (ambulance). It was about four blocks from our house and I was there almost as soon as they were. The cops threw sand on the radiator water in the street and cleaned up the glass and plastic with a push broom. The bill we got for that cleanup and the response to a fender-bender was close to a $1000 dollars in addition to the cost of the tow. It was a shock since we pay very high property taxes and thought that they were going for services such as that. Apparently not.

For the record, I do not mind paying taxes to keep my city in good shape AND I want well paid Police and Fire Fighters and lots of them. But this gimmick of the City billing us for response and cleanup really pissed us off. The repukes were in full swing here when this policy was enacted with a repuke mayor (my husband's cousin, LOL).

[notadmblnd]

6. Someone should try filing suit on behalf of the property tax payers in your town.

This has to be unconstitutional. What happens if you don't pay the fees, do they add them to your property tax bill?

[KittyWampus]

3. I don't understand the concept of billing the VICTIM.

[Greybnk48]

4. Because they were called FOR him?

:shrug: That really is bizarre. But I don't understand the bill at all. Isn't that what we're paying taxes for? For these people to respond?

[Tarheel_Dem]

5. Grover Norquist? Isn't that Jane Hamsher's new BFF? (nt)