After grilling the FDNY over their planned crash
"fee" in January, the City Council is getting ready to fight it with legislation. At today's City Council meeting Peter Vallone and others put forth a resolution—not to be confused with the one State Senator Carl Kruger (D-Brooklyn) introduced in the State Senate—which would amend the City Charter to prohibit the introduction of "public safety service fees" as of January 1, 2011.
"If city agencies start charging to provide protection then anything is possible," Vallone explained to the Journal. "If your house is burglarized too many times, the police could start charging you. If your store has too many shoplifters, the police can start charging a fee to show up." The new resolution would make such a future impossible.
Further on the side of the bill is the strong public sentiment against a crash tax, not to mention the fact that insurance companies hate the idea and even Council Speaker Christine Quinn, despite her close relationship with crash tax proponent Mike Bloomberg, is opposed. Transportation Alternatives still likes it, though.
One problem? If the tax is axed the FDNY is going to be in some hot water financially. The department is trying to close a $22 million budget deficit with these fees and the alternatives—like closing 20 firehouses—are not very refreshing.
If the tax does go forward, however, the FDNY will start handing out $365 to $490 bills (depending on the severity of the crash) July 1. What we wonder is, if the tax were around now, who would have had to pay the fee in a case like this?
