As a homeowner in Mariposa County I have struggled with my budget for many years in order to make my property fire safe every spring. Now this!!! I’m expected to add “up to $150” a year(????) for fire prevention, which already costs me more than $300 a year? NO WAY!!!
Why? Here are the reasons:
1. The fire department in Mariposa County has recently levied a yearly $80 tax to our homeowner’s bill to upgrade the FD equipment.
2. Recent terrible fires in this area were caused by people who DO NOT LIVE HERE!! EX: the deadly “Telegraph Fire” and a fire in Merced Canyon started by an exploding motor home. These people do not have to pay such a levy. Is this fair? NO!!!
3. We who do live here know how to prevent fires better than the people who come here as tourists, and we do so with great responsibility. This is costly in terms of time, physical effort, and money. For fairness this tax is a levy that should be made on ALL California land and home owners, if it must be made.
4. We–in the “designated areas”–were not well represented when this decision was made!! Perhaps our reps were in the minority and the majority voted against us in spite of the size of the area involved. For instance, LA is not being taxed, but there must be a lot of representation for LA.
5. We were not told who gets the benefit of this money. How is the money going to be spent? To fight grass fires in the Central Valley or fires in Los Angeles? Or to fill in other holes in the California state budget?
This is an outrageous and unacceptable decision on the part of the CA legislature and Governor of the State of California.
Rachel L. Oliver PhD
Mariposa, CA
I too, am not happy about this “fee”, but while making a donation during one of the roadside efforts, a fireman told me that they had gotten a bulldozer , and it had come from the money generated by the “fee”. It would be nice if they (those who take our money) made this type of information more readily available. Knowing that my “fee” is helping the local fire fighting effort soothes my anger at the politicians for enacting a tax on a selected group of people, when the tax, if indeed necessary, should be on every Californian