On Mon, 22 Feb 2010, Myles Sussman wrote:
> 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
Googling Tracy and Budget, it looks like this is a desparate attempt by the city to convince people to pay more taxes to help close a $9M gap.
Basically they are saying that every ambulance pick-up costs the city $300-$400 -- which sounds about right to me.
Now if everyone agreed to pay to pay slightly higher taxes, the annual costs could be covered.
If no one paid it, then the only way to pay for it is to add it to people's medical bills (where it will probably barely be noticed amidst the 10s of thousands). They could have done this quietly and nobody would have noticed.
The middle course is an adjusted fee assuming only moderate take-up. But this course seems designed to make people outraged -- in order to publicize a budget problem that usually makes their eyes glaze over -- and make them demand a different course.
Maybe I'm giving the town too much credit, but it sounds like interesting local politics in desparate times.
Michael