A warning to Jeanette Meyer and the rest of our City Council

This morning during breakfast at local fave Fat Nat's I saw this headline:

Cities may charge fees on emergency services

In short, the city of Coon Rapids is looking at charging their residents for the use of fire or police services.

A few years back our city council made this same bad decision, soon thereafter rescinded, to charge you for the "use of fire suppression". West District council member Jeanette Meyer defended the action by stating that "your tax dollars pay for the availability of fire suppression, not the use of it."

Hogwash. I thought so and so did thousands of other Brooklyn Park residents.

When presented with the facts, including the fact that many insurance companies do not reimburse for this (which is irrelevant to the issue) and that this would be a tax increase on their residents, especially those who can least afford it (you've just had your house go up in flames, here's your bill from the city...), the rest of the council changed their minds - wisely - and voted to rescind their previous decision.

Unfortunately, Meyer continued to defend her position and there's no evidence that I've seen where she's changed her opinion on it.

Given our city has been struggling with budget issues I fully expect this action by Coon Rapids to encourage her to bring it up again.

As residents we need to tell our council that we will not put up with this horrible, regressive, mean tax increase on their residents. We pay taxes for the USE of fire suppression and police protection, not just for the availability of it.

I retired from politics a few years ago and have been happy pretty much ignoring most of it, especially local city council issues. I have Direct TV now and can't watch council meetings, happily.

But if this issue comes up again not only will I un-retire, I will become their worst nightmare, especially Meyer's since she's up for re-election next year. It will become my personal mission in life to personally let every resident of our district know she attempted to bring this back.

If this issue comes up again we need to watch very closely who supports it. Will Rich Gates support this? He didn't support it the last time. How about the new guy from the East District? Where do you stand?

Watch this space for updates if any develop.