Fire levy - how much do you pay?

[journeyman Mick]

Had a fire brigade meeting on the weekend and we discussed raising our levy by 50%. There were some people present who were quite vocal in opposition to any increase, citing finacial hardship. We would like to raise it from $20 per rateable property per annum to $30. This equates to less than 20c per week extra, or, in total, half the price of a newspaper per week.:eek: So what are you paying where you live?

Mick

[marker]

Mick
In NSW it is a levy on the home insurance policy at 22% that came to $147
Mark

[Felder]

G'day Mick,

In the Blue Mountains, we are all charged a fee of approx $40 per year and it is called a 'bushfire levy'. As a volunteer firefighter who gives up a shedload of my own time, I asked the council to waive my $40 fee and received better laughs than Eddie Murphy during his 'Raw' and 'Delirious' days.

The local council owns our building (fire station) as well as a lot of the equipment that we have raised funds for. Essentially, the residents of the Blue Mountains 'pay' for their volunteer firefighters through their rates, and their donations.
At this point I should add that none of the firefighters actually get paid. All monies simply go to running the service. (Electricity, water, fuel, etc)

However, in my Brigade, we have a doorknock every 12 months which usually gives us enough money to run the Brigade for at least another year. The local community is extremely supportive and is more than happy to give $X to the Brigade (on top of the levy). which (unfortunately )does not go to the firefighters, but instead to important equipment purchases such as pumps or fire curtains.

We truly rely on these sort of donations to ensure that we can survive from year to year.

[Munga]

G'day Mick,

We pay $20.00 which I feel is cheap insurance and 95% of our residents are happy to pay, we just bought our second truck (subsidised) and are increasing our shed size from 9 X 7.5 to 21 x 7.5 so the property owners can see what is being done with their money.

But we do have our residents who refuse to pay (it's only a volantary payment) and as one person said "we are obligated to go to a fire anyway even if it's on his property" so in my ever tactful manner I told him that was true but we would only protect his neighbours properties not his, would you believe he complained about this and I got chastised by the big wigs. I'd like to go real slow to them but just can't make my self do it.

Arch

[Bluegum]

From memory we pay $22 per 1/4 on our rates. Not to bad I feel considering the fact that the firies will responed and often put their own lives at risk to rescue people from burning buildings.

[Iain]

I am not aware of a levy we have to pay but I always thought it was factored into insurance premiums.
The CFA have regular tin rattling days and other fund raisers but I think they are funded by State Government, well, the full time members anyway and the equipment.

[Sturdee]

I am not aware of a levy we have to pay but I always thought it was factored into insurance premiums.
The CFA have regular tin rattling days and other fund raisers but I think they are funded by State Government, well, the full time members anyway and the equipment.

That's right Iain, it is part of the insurance premiums. Went up this year as well, not sure by how much but some insurance premiums went up by 50 %.

Of course if you're uninsured the MFB will charge their costs after having attended a fire. A few years back it cost a mate of mine $ 5500 for them attending and putting out at a small fire.


Peter.

[Dan]

$67.20 per year for a standard house.

[forunna]

about $80 for me. its some kind of percentage of the council rates I think.
Its a state govt charge here in the west but collected by the shire councils on the rates. Over looked and controlled by FESA - Fire and Emergency Services Authority.
All equipment is supplied via the levey (called ESL - emergency services levey), through the council.
My council is very supportive and we get all the help we need but there are some others I hear about who still manage to get very little.
It appears you still need to know just how to get the funding from the levey.
no rebate for being a volly either. (

[journeyman Mick]

.............no rebate for being a volly either. (

I did read some suggestions, after some of the larger fires down south, that volunteers be rewarded in some way. There were lots of suggestions raised, rates discounts, registration discounts etc etc. Of course, by the time they'd finished their discussions the fire threat was over and everything went back to the status quo. I'd be happy if we were treated civilly and professionally by the full timers and that they made Ergon and Telstra either pay some form of levy or make them responsible for clearing around their assets. As it now stands we get sued if we don't locate any flamable assets (plastic cable pits and pillar boxes) and protect them from any controlled burns. In return Ergon gives us nothing when we turn out to fires caused by their lines dropping or shorting or to pretoect their assets from wildfires. Pretty equitable arrangement huh? Oh and in case you missed it in a previous thread I was almost killed crossing the railway tracks with our truck last week due to a breakdown in communications from the "professionals".:mad:

Mick (with a bee in his bonnet )

[havenoideaatall]

I am not aware of a levy we have to pay but I always thought it was factored into insurance premiums.
The CFA have regular tin rattling days and other fund raisers but I think they are funded by State Government, well, the full time members anyway and the equipment.

Thing is, not many are staff or full time. Alot of people forget that apart from Dandenong, Hallam, Frankston, Boronia, Springvale, and a few others, every other CFA station is volunteer.

[Bob38S]

Appears on my half yearly rate notice as

"Fire Levy Group Two = $68.00"

Not sure what the group 2 bit means.
Bob