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California City to Charge when you dial 9-1-1 Emergency number

Melensdad

Melensdad

Jerk in a Hawaiian Shirt & SNOWCAT Moderator
Staff member
Interesting. Is it a simple user fee or is it a necessity? Most government agencies provide necessities without charge. However given the financial condition of the state of California, and consequently many of its cities, perhaps this is one way to salvage the state?

Tracy Residents Now Have To Pay For 911 Calls
http://cbs13.com/local/tracy.911.calls.2.1502690.html

Tracy residents will now have to pay every time they call 9-1-1 for a medical emergency.

But there are a couple of options. Residents can pay a $48 voluntary fee for the year which allows them to call 9-1-1 as many times as necessary.

Or, there's the option of not signing up for the annual fee. Instead, they will be charged $300 if they make a call for help.

"A $300 fee and you don't even want to be thinking about that when somebody is in need of assistance," said Tracy resident Greg Bidlack.

Residents will soon receive the form in the mail where they'll be able to make their selection. No date has been set for when the charges will go into effect.​
 
So what did they do with all the money charged on the phone bills for the 911 fee? Or did they not charge this fee?
 
So, in the current economy, you have been laid off, but, you are just making it and you see the neighbor kid fall out of a tree and lay bleeding on the lawn. You know no one is home at his house. Your choices.

Go to his aid and risk a lawsuit.

Call 911 and pay $300.00 for the call.

Turn up the radio and try to ignore the noise for no risk and no cost.

Isn't Tracy California a great place to live?
 
And while I am thinking of it, aren't the elected officials of Tracy just the very milk of human kindness, with the very best interests of those they are entrusted to govern foremost in their minds?
 
I would think charging for ambulance would be consistent with the rest of the health care system in the US. No FREE ambulances. Cant beleive you guys think EMT being paid for with tax dollars aint "socialist". How bout some consistancy here?
 
Mak2 - While my example was in RE: medical - 911 is for way more than that.

How about the 80 year old widow who will now have to pay $300.00 to get the police to come and arrest the thug beating her door down? Living on Social Security, she may have the funds fior the annual membership required to summon the life saving assistance she is being taxed to pay for.
 
Adillo I real dont know your political bent, so I was not trying to start on you. I was just using it to point out another arguemnt for UHC. If she cant afford the $300 ambulance ride she sure cant afford it after she gets there.
 
No offense taken. I am just reacting to th inhumanity of what they are doing and the more I think about it, the more it bothers me.
 
Good question on what will be done with this money. 911 is a service that is normally paid for by the entire community via taxes. To make a change like Tracy has proposed seems akin to trying to sell the 48 dollar insurance policy for 911, just in case you need it.

I 'suspect' there would have to be exceptions to the fee such as what Andy pointed out, for the neighbor calling for a fallen child or a stander by calling for an auto accident etc. if you called for the service in aid of someone else it would not seem logical for you to have to pay a fee because of it.
 
Why not! N.Y. charges you tax on hospital stays. Our local ambulance is a free ride supported by contributions.
 
mak2 said:
I would think charging for ambulance would be consistent with the rest of the health care system in the US. No FREE ambulances. Cant beleive you guys think EMT being paid for with tax dollars aint "socialist". How bout some consistancy here?
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In many places (here in Indiana where you and I live) it does cost money to ride in an ambulance. I see no problem with that. I also see no problem with having the EMT get paid.

However what you maybe confusing is who should get charged. In the posts above yours, to which you apparently replied, the situation involved a NEIGHBOR boy falling out of a tree and an unemployed man seeing the said neighbor child lying in pain. So why is it that the witness would/should be charged the $300 fee for reporting that someone else needs assistance? If I need help I expect to pay for it. Be it because I hit a deer, had a fender bender, a fall that results in a broken hip, a burglary to my home or a house fire.

But if I see you in trouble and call the 9-1-1 emergency number then I don't understand why I should be charged for helping you.

I believe that is the consistent thought that you were asking about, despite the fact that your criticism was misguided by your misinterpretation of the situation in the posts above your reply.
 
B_Skurka said:
But if I see you in trouble and call the 9-1-1 emergency number then I don't understand why I should be charged for helping you.

I believe that is the consistent thought that you were asking about, despite the fact that your criticism was misguided by your misinterpretation of the situation in the posts above your reply.
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I did not realize if an innocent bystander called 911 due to an accident that they were not involved in, that bystander was charged. I did notice someone later mentioning it but thought they misspoke. If that is the case and someone calling for someone else who has been injured is charged than I retract everything I said, it is too stupid a law for comment.
 
Well the 911 lines are going to be pretty quiet then, crime will go up even higher because nobody will want to call to report and accident, fight, drunk driver and the list goes on.

So if someone breaks into your house and you shoot them with a .34 cent reload, you are saving some $299.66... now that makes sense in a warped kinda way.

Wonder how long it will be before we get like the UK's TV tax, they have a truck that drives around and checks to see if you have a TV on by the radio fingerprint they put out and if your address hasn't paid the TV viewing tax, they fine you to boot.

Not one of these crappy "Service Fees" are going to go away, they just keep on adding up. Every bill I get seems to have another tax added to it, the cell phone bill alone now has three different taxes listed on it.
 
"Wonder how long it will be before we get like the UK's TV tax, they have a truck that drives around and checks to see if you have a TV on by the radio fingerprint they put out and if your address hasn't paid the TV viewing tax, they fine you to boot."
Is this for real? No fricking wonder they took the guns away!
 
mak2 said:
I did not realize if an innocent bystander called 911 due to an accident that they were not involved in, that bystander was charged. I did notice someone later mentioning it but thought they misspoke. If that is the case and someone calling for someone else who has been injured is charged than I retract everything I said, it is too stupid a law for comment.
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I agree Mak2 , I,m not a fan of stupid laws or charging for things that might allready be covered by taxes or whatever . I dont know much about this law as well as others from states to states .

But I do know sometimes stupid , nosey people cause some stupid laws to be put into place at the cost of others . 911 is so abused & costs people their lives because of people making false reports Or wanting info on stuff that has nothing to do with an emergency . Its Sickening IMO . how stupid & lazy some people are these days without thinking about the effect it might have on others .

Hopefully if the bill does pass it might be on a case to case basis & only people get charged that make the bogus calls . Just My opinion though . :biggrin:
 
I hate to say this but if a Tracy Resident witnessed a cop killing murder would he be charged the $300 buck to report it ?
Even California can not be this stupid ????????? There has to be more to this $300 dollar charge than that . I am going to go look .... back later
 
Nope ! Its true .... $400 bucks if you are a non resident of tracy . I am so glad I am leaving this ,(excuse my language) FUCKING state .
 
This is how it looks when everybody wants government services and nobody wants to be taxed to pay for it.

In California, local governments can raise User Fees that are based on actual cost at any time. Taxes, no.

Maybe this fee schedule includes some of the services that follow a 911 call - incarceration of the indigent etc. Somebody has to pay for the service rendered!

Tracy is one of those new commuter communities with phenomenal growth recently. It is right next to a couple of the highest mortgage delinquency communities in the nation, and I'm sure it shares their statistics. I'm sure with all the delinquencies and vacant houses Tracy's tax revenue has collapsed.

This is what the mortgage crisis looks like, up close. You want government services? Please pay in advance!

And maybe somebody on the city council is smirking - No socialism for us! (This area is also the home of the John Birch Society and its modern derivatives.)
 
Cali, seems to me the biggest objection to this is not paying for it, it is WHO is getting charged. For example if YOU see some woman getting attacked and YOU dial 911 then YOU get charged the fee, not the person who is getting the assistance. So if YOU are out of work or short on funds then maybe YOU will turn a blind eye to the people who need the help.
 
If there needs to be a charge, just like an ambulance why can't they charge the person needing the service. In the case of an ambulance the ambulance charges the person needing the help not the person that called it in. At least that is the way it is here.
 
Regardless - with the city broke, they seemed to have established a policy of pay up front. They don't sound like they have any patience for determining whose responsibility its - just pay and then we'll talk.
 
thcri said:
If there needs to be a charge, just like an ambulance why can't they charge the person needing the service.
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Exactly.


California said:
Regardless - with the city broke, they seemed to have established a policy of pay up front. They don't sound like they have any patience for determining whose responsibility its - just pay and then we'll talk.
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Well that is just stupid policy on the part of the city.

I don't think anyone here has complained about the fact that the city needs to charge. But their choice of how they are applying the charge is foolish and may very well lead to some very bad consequences.
 
B_Skurka said:
Exactly.



Well that is just stupid policy on the part of the city.

I don't think anyone here has complained about the fact that the city needs to charge. But their choice of how they are applying the charge is foolish and may very well lead to some very bad consequences.
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No Bob ... I really want to complain . We pay road tax , sales Tax , property tax ,Gas Tax , Cig Tax , Sporting good tax and every other tax in the world . Now they want us to pay to report a crime or emergency ?
What are they afraid of . It might interupt a policemans donut break ?

If they want to fix the system them fire half the useless SOB's that work there , give the other half a 20% raise and pocket the rest for crap like this .
 
Let's look at another possibility, that maybe Anonymous Coward, the guy who writes all those junk emails, just made this up to rile up people or something.

Digging a little deeper, there was a proposal that $300 is what a resident could be billed for medical services provided by the fire department.

The city was planning to contract out this billing to an existing medical-billing company to perform the actual billing, no doubt for a fee, so the city doesn't get the whole $300. Some of it goes to the billing company's own costs, some to its bottom line.

There is no policy for the city to charge $300 for answering the phone. Never was.

And of course there is the assumption is that your health insurance will pay the entire $300 for the emergency medical services! Bingo! No need to raise taxes to cover government costs!

The City Council voted this summer to charge Tracy residents a $300 fee every time a firefighter gives aid during an emergency medical call.

But it asked for a private company to handle billing residents, and four responded, Tracy Fire Department Chief Chris Bosch said. The companies vying for the contract are medical billing companies, he added.

The council is expected to choose one of the four companies at its Nov. 17 meeting, according to the fire chief.

At a time of falling sales and property tax income for the city, the fee is a way to raise money for the department.
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I'll let someone else research further into Anonymous Coward's assertion, to determine for us if that billing contract was ever awarded.
 
California said:
Let's look at another possibility, that maybe Anonymous Coward, the guy who writes all those junk emails, just made this up to rile up people or something.

Digging a little deeper, there was a proposal that $300 is what a resident could be billed for medical services provided by the fire department.

The city was planning to contract out this billing to an existing medical-billing company to perform the actual billing, no doubt for a fee, so the city doesn't get the whole $300. Some of it goes to the billing company's own costs, some to its bottom line.

There is no policy for the city to charge $300 for answering the phone. Never was.

And of course there is the assumption is that you health insurance will pay the entire $300 for the emergency medical services!

I'll let someone else research further into Anonymous Coward's assertion, to determine for us if that billing contract was ever awarded.
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I saw in my research where the billing company would keep 15 % I think .
I still pisses me off .
I can understand if they do what SFPD does when a false house alarm goes off . After the 2nd time you get charged xx amount of dollars .


I just need to leave the U.S for awhile . I am in a pissy mood . I do not want to hear one member say a word about paying brides in another country to get something done . In my book this is the same thing !!!
 
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