New York, NY – City Council Speaker Christine Quinn plans to submit testimony opposing Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s plan to charge motorists involved in accidents that require emergency-response services, a move that could doom the initiative.
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According to a draft copy of the testimony, Ms. Quinn called the mayor’s proposal “unworkable,” “unfair” and “unsafe.” The Fire Department is holding a public hearing on the plan at its Brooklyn headquarters.
”Emergency response is a basic government function for which individuals…should not be billed,” Ms. Quinn, the second most powerful official in city government, said in the draft testimony.
“The Fire Department doesn’t charge for its response to structural fires, and the Police Department doesn’t charge for patrolling a block,” she said. “Charging for responding to the scene of an accident is a slippery slope, and I don’t want to see us begin to go down that road out of a desperate desire to find sources of revenue.”
While FDNY officials promised to consider the public’s input at Friday’s hearing, the policy change doesn’t need City Council approval, FDNY officials said. But Council Member Peter Vallone Jr., chairman of the Public Safety Committee, is drafting a bill that would bar the administration from charging the fee.
Under the mayor’s proposal, a vehicle fire or any other incident with injuries would cost $490. A vehicle fire without injuries would cost $415. Incidents without fire or injuries would cost $365. The charges apply to every vehicle involved in an incident.
Read more in the Wall Street Journal
sickening if he wants to do that at least be man enough to privatize emergency personal
The Mayor is 100% correct.
We shall be charge for the right of:
1) Walking on the sidewalk.
2) Breathing the air of NYC.
3) Looking on Manhattan Sky-line.
4) Sitting in any City park.
Blloomberg doesn’t do his job !
There are so many fines and fees on every single thing we do and everything that happens to us in our daily lives that I honestly don’t know what we pay taxes for any more.
This “accident fee” proposal is despicable.
This is a basic service. Aren’t your tax dollars covering this already? I’m sure the FDNY loves this proposal as this brings them in revenue. However, if they can’t get their money form this, you can be sure they will go after your insurance company for compensation if they don’t already.
move out people…or impeach this $hmuk
So then NY can be like that town in Tennessee, where firefighters let a house burn down for not paying the annual $75 fire protection fee.