Hi-Desert Fire Fees Approved
Posted: Friday, February 10, 2012
by Jack H. Schick
Well, the bill isn’t in the mail just yet, not until June. Since there was a delay getting an endorsement from the California state regulators it will be a double bill, for the 2011-2012, and the 2012-2013 years this first time. They say it’s only going to amount to a measly $300, but, when I think about it, that’s a day and a half’s wages and could buy enough gasoline to get me back and forth to work for a month. It’s the new California fire-prevention fee that will be assessed on properties in unincorporated areas that are served by Cal Fire, a branch of the Department of Forestry and Fire Prevention.
The new fire-prevention fees are expected to raise $84 million. It will replace $55 million Cal Fire now gets from the general fund in Moscow, I mean Sacramento. The $55 million will be spent on vaguely defined “fire-prevention activities,” like brush clearing and education in the areas over which Cal Fire has responsibility. The extra $29 million will go for the ever increasing cost of “administration,” and for grants for fire protection in ‘special circumstances,’ (like the guy is your buddy, or it’s the fire chief’s house).
The California Board of Equalization (the state makes an effort to 'equalize' the screwing of taxpayers and property owners), will be collecting the fees each year. They will skim off their administrative costs and send what’s left to Cal Fire. Cal fire will then skim off their administrative costs, give everybody a raise, improve the benefits package and the pension plan, and then distribute the money to local districts. The local districts will then skim off administrative costs, schedule a couple of classes for the public and send a couple of guys around in pick-up trucks to fine you if your wood pile is too close to the house.
Cal Fire is compiling the list of victims; I mean those liable for the fee. The Board of Equalization will maintain fee payer’s accounts (deducting administrative costs, of course). There is an appeal process that property owners may use (for and administrative fee, of course), to challenge the fees and which structures are located in Cal Fire responsibility areas. You can find the procedure somewhere online, but it’s not the state’s responsibility to make it easy to find or to help you with your greedy, whining challenge.
My unincorporated area of Rimrock, in San Bernardino County, is in the Third District of Cal Fire. The (very well paid, with great insurance and pension plan) District Supervisor, Neil Derry, said that residents, if they have a gripe, can join the Howard Jarvis California Taxpayers Association in suing the state once they’ve received their bills in June. “But they need to pay the bill,” Derry was quick to add. But, suing city hall is tough enough. Sue Moscow and you might end up in the Gulag.
I guess I’ll just have to pay up. I do want them to show up if there’s a fire. There wasn’t much they could do when the 250 square mile, Sawtooth Fire roared through our neighborhood a couple of years ago, though. I don’t care how much money you throw at it, you aren’t going to stop it if the winds are blowing. Several of my neighbor’s places burned down. There actually was one house, way out in the middle of it, that did miraculously survive. It just happened to be the house of the sister of the fire chief; the guy who told the airplane pilots where to drop the chemical fire retardant.
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Top-level comments on this article: (2 total)When the world sees what "California Pensions hath wrought" no one with a state pension is going to feel secure. Great jobs.Thanks-I was hoping you'd like the Krakatoa one. An Elephant in the Room
It was too depressing to give a higher rating.depressing? It's life on the left coast.
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