← Autodidact Archive · Original Dissent · madrussian
Thread ID: 8355 | Posts: 4 | Started: 2003-07-22
2003-07-22 22:10 | User Profile
Seems pretty desperate. I wonder if they are still wasting several millions a year on various programs for the homeless (which don't help to reduce the homeless population but only improve their "lifestyle")
Tue Jul 22, 2:35 AM ET
KCBS-AM
The city of San Francisco has come up with a new idea to help balance the budget -- a fee for residents who own burglar alarms. Burglar alarm owners will be billed a $40 dollar annual fee for having an alarm, and a $100 dollar fine for each false alarm. KCBS' Barbara Taylor reports, the city's Office of Emergency Services has sent bills to 18,000 households. But city treasurer Susan Leal, who runs the tax collector's office, says her office is stuck fielding all the complaints.
Leal thinks the city could have better prepared residents by explaining why the fee was being imposed, and giving them a chance to ask questions.
Some city residents who own burglar alarms won't receive a bill -- their alarm companies may be located outside of San Francisco. Other firms have declined to provide the city with their client list.
For more Bay Area news and information, visit kpix.com and www.kcbs.com.
2003-07-23 00:25 | User Profile
No one should have to pay an alarm tax. But, I support paying a fee for false alarms. I'm sure a big city gets a number of false alarms every day from alarm systems. Why shouldn't the source of the false alarm pay for the services rendered as a result of the alarm?
People who don't own alarms are subsidizing those who do. So, there is some logic to this tax.
2003-07-23 01:43 | User Profile
I hope this policy does indeed go into effect. Many of the people who use alarms are financial elitists, the same people who fill our cities with Mestizos and other Third World dreck. Anything that makes financial elitists more vulnerable to the problems they create gets my endorsement. :D
2003-07-23 16:43 | User Profile
This is crap. Many burglar-alarm owners who've never raised a false alarm will now have to pay for the carelessness of others. This is more penalizing of everyday citizens for the irresponsibility of the few. I'd support fining people who raised false alarms, but not imposing a fee on everyone. This is a blatant $$$-grab against you and me who just want to protect our homes (because the government quite frankly does a crappy job of it). It seems they want to take every means of defending ourselves and our properties away from us.
There is no sense to this tax. Only socialists would approve of it. In their twisted perspective, anyone who owns anything seems to owe something to the unwashed masses. To which I say, get a freaking job, and stop trying to freeload off the successful people. Damn welfare state and their brainwashed sheeple...