Stand Against This Mayor

The Little Dictator of NYC wants to charge accident victims $500 for the FDNY to respond to accidents.

People are starting to respond:

Fire Commissioner Salvatore Cassano was on the hot seat Monday over his plan to charge motorists up to $490 for FDNY responses to car accidents and fires.

"I think that this plan should be dead on arrival," fumed City Councilman Vincent Ignizio (R-S.I.) as he grilled Cassano at a Council budget hearing.

Ignizio urged his colleagues, who generally oppose the idea, to "take a stand against the mayor" and say, "You're not going to pass an accident tax on the people of the City of New York."

Cassano tried his best to defend the plan to raise $1 million a year by charging to respond to accidents: $490 for crashes or fires with injuries, $365 for crashes without injures and $415 for car fires with no injuries.

"I'll consider any revenue-generating proposals before I close a fire company," Cassano said.

Public Safety Committee Chairman Peter Vallone (D-Queens), who has introduced a bill to ban such fees, told Cassano, "I wouldn't count on that $1 million."

Cassano insisted the proposed charge wasn't a tax, saying, "I'd use the word 'fee.' It's something that's being done all [over] the country."

He ticked off more than a dozen cities that charge similar fees, from Buffalo to Bridgeport, Conn. Unlike New York, none of those cities imposes an income tax, Ignizio and others pointed out.

"It's insulting to firefighters and the public," said Stephen Cassidy, president of the Uniformed Firefighters Association.

"One million dollars out of a [city] budget that's $64 billion is like a penny in a couch. It's just flat-out silly," Cassidy said.

Once again, though, the FD commissioner is taking the heat instead of Bloomberg.

Let me say it again:

MONEYBAGS IS IMPOSING THESE FDNY FEES.

One more time:

MONEYBAGS IS IMPOSING THESE FDNY FEES.

Bloomberg is the problem.

Until he is sent packing, his authoritarian decrees will continue to reign supreme.