Excerpts from the ChicagoTribune.com:
The Newport Township Fire Protection District is again seeking a tax increase to upgrade equipment.
A referendum on the March 15 ballot will ask for .132 cents for every $100 of a home’s assessed market value — the same proposal that was defeated last year when it got only 44 percent of the vote. If the referendum passes, a person with a home valued at $100,000 would pay $43.75 per year to the district, Newport Fire Chief Mark Kirchhoffer said.
The chief said taxes have not been raised for the fire district in 23 years and the money is needed to replace equipment. He said home values in the township have dropped from $268,807,724 in 2009 to $188,752,091 in 2015, which means less revenue generated through taxes. That loss of about $80 million in taxable value has left the Newport Fire District with about $1.25 million in tax revenue and a $1.9 million budget.
#1 by Drew Smith on March 16, 2016 - 8:39 PM
In Illinois a fire protection district may not bill its residents for fire service. The billing of non-residents is permitted and the fees allowable are contained in state law. In many fire districts the charges that could be assessed against non-residents are minimal compared to the total call volume.
As for ambulance service, at the present time Medicare and private insurance only pay for transportation to a hospital, not medical care per se. Ambulance fees collected are generally 50-70 percent of those billed. This column doesn’t permit a detailed explanation of why this is so but in a nut shell you can charge whatever you want but that doesn’t mean someone will pay. Inability to pay or federal law trumps desire.
In both cases, the cost of staff or a vendor to perform the billing must be weighed against the revenue to be gained to see if any net revenue to the fire district will result. Vendors usually charge a percentage of the fee collected.
#2 by Opr57 on March 16, 2016 - 5:43 PM
More and more departments are hitting this wall , everybody wants a fire department , but have the attitude of let somebody else pay for it. As a suggestion departments should hire a person who would submit bills directly to insurance carriers for both fire and rescue service most insurance homeowners and car insurance will cover this as well as health insurance for ambulance transport. Then bill the individual for the amounts not covered by insurance companies.