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Topic: letter to my local news papers pertaining to volunteer fire departments (Read 1577 times) previous topic - next topic

letter to my local news papers pertaining to volunteer fire departments

Below is  a letter I have submitted to a few of my local papers..............


NO DOUBLE TAXATION
              In light of a recent Monroe County approval, a vote for a so called new “Volunteer fire fighter tax levy” will be held in May.  The march 4th, 2014 Monday night meeting in Lindside on this new tax is the idea of this Volunteer fire Department Chief.  It was put together in such a hurry it feels like only those “in the know” shall attend the meeting.  I see it as highly disorganized as other county officials have noted for the record they were not able to attend due to such short notice.  It is my (J. Scott Cassity) rightful and legal concern that this impending so called “new tax” will be double charged upon a large majority of us citizens.  I am already paying for this service.
              According to, and as a matter of public record with the State Treasurer’s office of John Perdue, when a citizen with a home mortgage pays his monthly note, the lender requires the property have “Fire and Casualty” insurance.  A portion of our monthly payment is extracted by state Insurance Commissioner and transferred to the State Treasurer. This state mandated VFD (volunteer fire department) existing “TAX LEVY” is placed into a common pot for quarterly disbursp00get out to all the VFD’s as equal dollar value payments” says our state treasurer’s office and such I confirmed via available public records.
              Our four VFD’s combined is considered “non-working” which qualifies these as volunteer units and all together receiving $47,000.00 every 3 months on average from us citizens as long as the VFD meets Fire Marshall, NFPA and ISO9000 requirements. Conversely, fifty percent of all income is instantly absorbed by Insurance, facility maintenance and compliancy cost burdens.  The remainder is used to train people, equip them and fight fires.  In theory our local VFD would consume 100% of their remaining budget by fighting only 2 fires or less per qtr by converting their services value into dollars.
              The amount of $180,729.14 during FY2013 was dispersed to our county VFD’s made possible by those who pay an existing “TAX LEVEY” built within our mortgages.  This tax levy will impose more than 4$ per 10,000.00 of taxable property value.  Some say our property taxes are low now, but be advised new ways to extract money from you including your 20 year old so called “antique car” are being implemented.
              Each VFD has been known to express a theme pertaining to their operating costs are funded by “donations only” and is not the case.  Our home owner tax dollars are funding our Local VFD, however, the root of the problem is the VFD wants more and to their defense I honestly agree.  The Lindside VFD has approached our County Commission to get “more”.    When a County commissioner is also a Volunteer Fire fighter, I find it to be a conflict of interest that this levy be imposed as there is the possibility of not gathering all the facts before imposing taxation on the public.  In this case, The county Commission is dead wrong for not doing their due diligence in advance insuring this is not a double taxation on the population for the same service rendered and imposed at the state level.
              In FY2013, the State Treasurer notified the public that an additional 1% increase was allocated to be “LEVIED” on Fire and Casualty insurance policies.  In effect my homeowner’s policy increased to accommodate the needs of our local VFD’s, be it enough or not is not my problem.  If the local VFD’s are not getting enough money, then take it up with the state, I am paying my appropriate share calculated by the state Insurance Commissioner.  The appropriate and logical action would be the following:
              Seek out residents of Monroe County who own cars or who own “Property” with or without structures.  A  VFD taxation on these two qualifiers would generate a wider breadth of monies than its current structure.  In addition, and if the preceding were implemented, I require the county commissioner to successfully petition the State Treasurer to make my Fire and Casualty Insurance no longer required and I can divert this money locally.  I personally would rather know that my local levy funding I pay for a service is well within eyesight.  The VFD then becomes essentially public property with much more liability then our VFD’s currently enjoy “not having”.  You may contact me at 304 772 3411.  I personally will Vote No for this item, it’s mostly not my problem that there are people out there who are riding on the backs of the VFD free of charge.  If the VDF choses to take this seriously, they will stop taking more from the tax payers contributing to the national GDP and start extracting monies from those who currently  contribute nothing yet get the same services I do including out of state land owners.  This notice is a revision to my original and was due to local townspeople input and thoughts and I thank them all for their willingness to finally take on such a sensitive yet important topic.

letter to my local news papers pertaining to volunteer fire departments

Reply #1 –
Good on ya Scott. we just found out that our county is now charging for curb side trash pickup this year, even though we pay for it both in tax and separately on our water bill.
Quote from: jcassity
I honestly dont think you could exceed the cost of a new car buy installing new *stock* parts everywhere in your coug our tbird. Its just plain impossible. You could revamp the entire drivetrain/engine/suspenstion and still come out ahead.
Hooligans! 
1988 Crown Vic wagon. 120K California car. Wifes grocery getter. (junked)
1987 Ford Thunderbird LX. 5.0. s.o., sn-95 t-5 and an f-150 clutch. Driven daily and going strong.
1986 cougar.
lilsammywasapunkrocker@yahoo.com

letter to my local news papers pertaining to volunteer fire departments

Reply #2 –
im currently still waiting on an answer to the question..since its the job of a "Commissioner" to get a community more revenue "for a commission"....

if its legal for a town commissioner to tax for the same thing that we are taxed on at the state level

letter to my local news papers pertaining to volunteer fire departments

Reply #3 –
As a business owner, property owner, and  tax payer I say good for you if they are trying to do this with little or no public knowledge.

 As the asst. chief on the local VFD I say imagine what the burden to tax payers/property owners would be if they had to fund career fire fighters (we are all professionals). Some liability on the VFD is ok, but too much and you will have no volunteers left.  Also consider how much it would cost to insure property if there was no fire service to protect your area. The cost of fire fighting equipment is very high, at least your tax dollars in this case are likely going to purchase trucks, tools, and equipment that was made in the USA, by workers earning a living wage, and is used to keep yourself, property and volunteer firefighters safe.

Good luck with your efforts, hope you get the answers you are looking for. - Joe

letter to my local news papers pertaining to volunteer fire departments

Reply #4 –
thus far, every call I have gotten has been projecting the premise that I am against volunteer fire fighters.,, certainly not the case

my article suffers from a growing trend today called "too many words",, so people don't wanna read.  they just see that I am against the tax but not see that I am against the facts,, not the tax.

letter to my local news papers pertaining to volunteer fire departments

Reply #5 –
Hey it gave me a headache, Sometime short and to the point will get read. What do I know?
Old Grey Cat to this.88 Cat, 5.0 HO, CW mounts, mass air, CI custom cam, afr165's, Tmoss worked cobra intake, BBK shorty's,off road h pipe, magnaflow ex. T-5,spec stage 2 clutch, 8.8 373 TC trac loc, che ajustables with bullits on the rear. 11" brakes up front. +

letter to my local news papers pertaining to volunteer fire departments

Reply #6 –
Quote from: jcassity;430652
thus far, every call I have gotten has been projecting the premise that I am against volunteer fire fighters.,, certainly not the case

my article suffers from a growing trend today called "too many words",, so people don't wanna read.  they just see that I am against the tax but not see that I am against the facts,, not the tax.

I really wanted to understand this and read it several times but I can't fully grasp what your position is and what the variables are here.  So for me it wasn't that it was too many words, it's just I couldn't comprehend what they were presenting.
"lol.. because not too many people care for that style of car"
[size=-2]Click on paw print \/[/size]

letter to my local news papers pertaining to volunteer fire departments

Reply #7 –
Quote from: Cougars 2 go;430697
I really wanted to understand this and read it several times but I can't fully grasp what your position is and what the variables are here.  So for me it wasn't that it was too many words, it's just I couldn't comprehend what they were presenting.


for years a part of my house payment circles back around to my local volunteer fire dept by way of my state treasurer, its a "LEVY"

this coming May, my local commissioner is endorsing a vote for a "local tax levy" for me to pay,, this money will go to the volunteer fire department.

this is a double tax.  my State levy for this same service will not stop happening so if this local levy is passed, its double taxation.