The revenuers are at it again

[shadows]

The revenuers are at it again.   This time like the trash charged by the square feet of the building regardless of how much trash was generated was shot down by the court.  Now it is a $200 dollar per truck charge for the Tulsa Fire Department to stand by at a wreck.  Your insurance company will pay it.  That is the gross statement of the year.  The insurance only uses the money collected from the rate payers and we are the rate payers.  The fire department is a department of the services  budgeted by the city, paid from taxes  collected from the citizens.  Of course one half of the cities employees live outside the city and the promotion will be that these people will be the payers.  These employees living out-of-town pay about one half as much for their insurance so all increases will be in order for the citizen of the city. 

Does anyone believe anymore that the revenuers should concentrate on the old fashion idea that the city should learn to live within its means? 

Are they the same revenuers that showed how much money would be saved by buying the glass cube?

[Conan71]

Do we really need to dispatch a fire truck to so many wrecks in the first place?  I understand in medical emergencies they can often arrive prior to an ambulance which might make the difference in survival on a critical call (no pulse, stopped breathing, choking, serious wounds) but I don't see the point in dispatching a fire truck on a non-emergency basis if there's no clean-up of hazardous fluids needed or threat of fire.

[RecycleMichael]

shadows just hates them there revenuers...ever since they axed his still. They just wasted all them corn-squeezins...

[shadows]

Every department of our over spending governments, City, State, and Federal are at it again.   We are going to privatize the auditing of the sales taxes assessed on the working poor. 

Why don't we assess all printed and advertising materials(including news papers and other sources where listed items are for sale.) The millions of dollars in sales taxes lost from the sale of leases, rents, uniforms, cars, boats, apartments, etc are now under constant auditing by a group know as the IRS and when one tries to read and understand their booklets there is no way to do a complete and justifiable audit of the perks available to the upper-class while the working poor pay a sales tax on even the food he eats whereas the food he buys he pays the same taxes paid by the upper-class who in many instants write it off as an expense.

Tulsa, on the bottom line is that another hundreds of thousands of dollars will need to be set up to audit the auditors.  The federal government had to set up a grand jury in Arkansas to look at auditing of even the departments in the Tulsa.

Is not the solution for the city to set up a government they can afford?  And pay employee's wages only equal to that of private industry.  Subject to their ability to perform efficiently the work in question.     

[Red Arrow]

Your insurance company will pay it. 

Hey, it's not your money.  Why should you care?  At least I believe that is the conventional "wisdom".

[Red Arrow]

We are going to privatize the auditing of the sales taxes assessed on the working poor. 

.....NEWS FLASH.....

The rich will now be exempted from paying sales tax on anything they purchase above the level spent by the working poor.  No more slight of hand required.  A new state agency will be formed, employing thousands, to determine the amount of sales tax paid by the working poor.  Those results will be used by accountants paid by the rich to make sure the rich do not pay any more sales tax than the working poor.

/NEWS FLASH
/sarcasm

[YoungTulsan]

My problem with the Fire Dept. being first responders to all calls is in them taking the 50,000 pound fire engine by default.  They have the smaller SUVs that I assume they just use when the engines are already out?  Why are those not sent to most situations?

[Red Arrow]

My problem with the Fire Dept. being first responders to all calls is in them taking the 50,000 pound fire engine by default.  They have the smaller SUVs that I assume they just use when the engines are already out?  Why are those not sent to most situations?

When I was a volunteer fireman (near Phila, PA) each piece of equipment had a primary assignment. Examples include: structure fire, field fire, highway crash washdown, rescue. 

[nathanm]

Do we really need to dispatch a fire truck to so many wrecks in the first place?  ...I don't see the point in dispatching a fire truck on a non-emergency basis if there's no clean-up of hazardous fluids needed or threat of fire.

It's rare that a crash that gets the police called out will not also have spilled fluids, aside from hit and runs. Even then, they sweep up the debris, which is nice.

[Conan71]

It's rare that a crash that gets the police called out will not also have spilled fluids, aside from hit and runs. Even then, they sweep up the debris, which is nice.

That was my whole point.  Why call out a truck if there's no hazardous fluids or threat of fire?  It's expensive to dispatch a 50,000 pound rig.

And there's a thingy on the back of cop cars called a "trunk".  You can fit a broom and dust pan into one of these things.

[nathanm]

That was my whole point.  Why call out a truck if there's no hazardous fluids or threat of fire?  It's expensive to dispatch a 50,000 pound rig.

And there's a thingy on the back of cop cars called a "trunk".  You can fit a broom and dust pan into one of these things.

I'm a block from a fire station, so it costs 'em a buck fifty to send a fire truck over here.

The trunk in that cop car is already chock full of stuff. Well, I don't specifically know about TPD (I've never had occasion to look in a TPD car's trunk), but the Arkansas State Police couldn't fit an overnight bag in the trunk of a Crown Vic with all the stuff they're required to carry. Firearms, extra ammo, tire chains, fluids for the car (ATF makes a great fire starter!), body armor, riot gear, the list goes on. God help them if they have to get at the spare tire. It takes an hour just to get all the junk out of the trunk. How they manage with the Chargers they have now, I'll never figure out.

Besides, the police officer(s) is/are too busy arresting the drunk or listening to the yelling or whatever may be the case.

Regardless, if some dumbass drives his or her car into another car or a tree or whatever, I've got no problem billing them for a couple hundred bucks to clean up the mess they leave. In fact, I strongly prefer that to leaving their debris everywhere. At least in this case it literally is a bill for services rendered.

My insurance couldn't get much cheaper, despite having limits sufficient to pay for a 30 car pileup, so I can't get upset from that angle, either.

I will admit it was excessive to have two fire trucks and four police cars in front of my house when some drunk hit a car parked across the street. One fire truck and two police cars would have been perfectly sufficient. You're not going to convince me that it's not a good idea to have people trained in first aid available at a crash, though. They often can't know whether or not they're actually needed until they arrive and assess the situation.

..and that was a nice ramble..

[Conan71]

I used to live not far from that fire station.  I was awakened many times in the middle of the night when they'd go on their runs.  Or some tool leaving the Hurricane Lounge with their open pipes ripping up Harvard at 2:15.

I really don't miss the noise around 15th & Harvard.  I get some sound being north of the BA where I am now, but I don't hear it indoors.

[DTowner]

Maybe I got a warped perception from watching the show "Emergency" as a youngster, but is seems like there should be a reasonable alternative to sending out a fully staffed pumper truck to every minor two-car accident.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jW_hM_azojU

[YoungTulsan]

Dodge Chargers, Crown Vics aside, the Fire Dept SUV could still carry cleanup supplies could it not?

A fire truck should respond to FIRE.  The homeless guy who ate a bad egg salad sandwich does not require 3,000 gallons of water to be present on the scene of his collapse.

[Townsend]

A fire truck should respond to FIRE.  The homeless guy who ate a bad egg salad sandwich does not require 3,000 gallons of water to be present on the scene of his collapse.

You ever see the cleanup needed after a homeless guy eats a bad egg salad sandwich?