Copyright 2006 The Hartford Courant Company
By DANIEL E. GOREN
Hartford Courant (Connecticut)
NEW BRITAIN, Conn. — The common council will consider a proposal Wednesday that would permit the city’s fire department to charge insurance companies for the cost of responding to motor vehicle accidents.
Should the proposal pass, it could generate an estimated $30,000 to $60,000 for the city, Fire Chief Mark Carr said Monday.
Alderman James Sullivan, who has sponsored the resolution, said the city should be seeking equitable ways to recover the costs of essential services, such as rescue operations at auto accidents and the cleaning of such hazardous materials as spilled gasoline. Those who are underinsured or not insured would not be billed, he said.
“In difficult budget times like we are in, anything that we can do to be reimbursed for the money that taxpayers have to shell out is vital and important to holding the line on further tax increases,” Sullivan said.
Last year, the fire department responded to 84 vehicle fires, 203 motor vehicle accidents with injuries, 31 accidents without injuries, 21 incidents in which a passenger was extracted from a vehicle and 64 hazardous material incidents, Carr said. The insurance industry is in the best position to shoulder the cost associated with these accidents, Sullivan said.
But Alderwoman Suzanne Bielinski said she probably will not support the plan. The proposal amounts to a “double tax” on city residents who already pay to get fire service and will now pay higher insurance premiums, she said.
“Alderman Sullivan’s contention is that we are not passing the cost on to the taxpayers but to the insurance company,” Bielinski said Monday. “But having worked for an insurance company for 14 years, there is no cost that an insurance company is going to incur that they will not pass on to their customers.
“I’m all for generating revenue for the town, but my feeling is that our taxpayers already pay for the services provided by the fire department,” Bielinski added. “To me, this is double-taxing the residents for a service they may not use. I don’t think it is fair.”
Twelve municipalities in the state, including Hartford, New London and Bridgeport, already save money by collecting from auto insurance companies, Sullivan said. And because other cities have similar programs in place, customers are paying higher premiums anyway, Carr said.
“An increasing number of fire departments are using this, because it makes it so they can recoup their costs,” Carr said. “Things are not getting any easier for municipalities, so we now need to be innovative and to examine new methods so we can do our jobs without affecting the community too much.”