Opinion: Rural fire fee needs to be overturned
By Ted Gaines
I am pleased to announce that I introduced legislation that would repeal the fire tax.
This $150 fire tax is illegal and unfair – plain and simple. Many rural property owners already pay local fire agencies for protection so it is clearly double-taxation and it is being dumped on the backs of rural Californians when the state has 10 percent unemployment and families are struggling to make ends meet.
Senate Bill 17 would reverse the governor’s and legislative Democrats’ decision to raise $84 million in taxes by charging rural property owners a “fee” for fire prevention services as part of the 2011-12 budget.
Ted Gaines
These communities are located in “State Responsibility Areas” designated by CalFire, even though their property taxes already contribute to the service contracts that counties have with CalFire.
This tax has been imposed on the owners of more than 800,000 properties in the state. According to Census and CalFire data, my largely rural district includes nearly 25 percent or approximately 200,000 of the properties whose owners will be subject to the fee.
I have been a leading critic of the fire “fee” since its inception, leading a referendum attempting to overturn the tax and co-authoring legislation last session to see it reversed. I’ve also strongly supported the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association’s class action lawsuit to overturn the fire fee.
The fire tax attempts to sidestep Proposition 26, which prevents the Legislature from disguising taxes as “fees” and circumventing constitutional requirements for passing higher taxes.
I vow to fight this in every way possible and encourage everyone who might get stuck paying this phony fee to get in the arena and fight it too. The answer to fire protection in California is not illegal taxes, but budgets that invest in core government services that protect every citizen in the state – rural, urban and suburban.
I will keep you updated on the status of this bill as it makes its way through the legislative process.
Ted Gaines, R-Roseville, represents Lake Tahoe in the California Senate.
To: State of California, Forestry Department & Cal-Fire.
This tax is being paid under protest!
My little shack is only 10ft. x 12ft. There is no electricity, water or heater. If there were bathroom facilities inside, I “could” call it an outhouse. (Would it then be exempt)?
The shack is up at 7100 ft. elevation out in the middle of nowhere, and only cost $3000. to build. I can only access the property 6 months out of the year. No one lives there, but I do sleep inside when I go up deer hunting during bad weather. I could do that in a storage container.
Your definition of “habitable structure” needs to be defined a little better. This is still a tax and I already pay property taxes. Do not try to balance your budget this way!
Larry Wetherington
P.S. I had to laugh when I noticed where my “fee” was being mailed.
“Special Taxes” Remittance Processing
Bravo Ted.
I see this tax as just another way around to fund excessive salaries and pensions for these agencies and bloated Gov.
Protection and services will be ignored. There are so many agencies and districts now that overlap, they spend precious time and money on figuring out whose equipment to fire up
while the flames get bigger. I have witnessed the bureaucratic morase that stymies the best and the brightest. Start cutting off the $$$$$ and remove unions from the equation especially in publice workers and efficiency will rise to the surface!!!
So if this Tax is to improve Fire service, shouldn’t my Fire insurance go down for the increased service? Nope, pure BS from Sac!
I was required to pay this BS tax on a property I no longer own. They billed homeowners a year after this illegal tax was forced on us and I was forced to pay on a home that someone else now owns. Welcome to liberal California.
Bill Swim, this isn’t even about improving your fire protection. The same amount that this “FEE” brings in to CalFire is being taken out of their fund by the state through the back door, and put into the general fund.
It is a giant shell game, and they are screwing the citizens AGAIN.
They call it a fee, but it is a tax, therefore illegal. There was no 2/3 vote of approval.
Even my mother-in-law in El Dorado Hills, in her stucco house with stone tile roof, in a suburban development with no trees, is having to pay this.
I paid this tax: so how do i get it back???
So right Dogula.
Go to firetaxprotest.org and follow the instructions. I paid the fee and then sent letters of protest to 4 different places. Three of them were acknowledged. If the tax is repealed we should get our $$$ back (at least this is the hope and plan).
You’re supposed to send the letters of protest before sending the payments, I think, and so far all I’ve gotten back is a rejection letter. 4 letters, one rejection. And with the state in collapse I see little hope that I’ll see that money again, but MAYBE if enough people protest, the few politicians who actually care about their constituents might try to put a stop to this sham. Maybe.
Perhaps I should have said rejection letters instead of acknowledgements. I have kept copies of my payment as well as the letters of protest and all correspondence that goes with it. I would like to think that we will get a refund.