菜鸟翻头条--州政府出台防火新税种

平常心

(菜鸟一个, 希望通过翻译头条来提高阅读水平, 希望大家能多指出我的错误,  多谢多谢!)

为了避免黑色星期六的悲剧再次发生, 州政府将出台新的房产税, 总额6亿澳元, 每户家庭预计每年要支付100澳元.

但政府拒绝了森林火灾皇家委员会关于纳税者基金回购高风险区域房产的建议(这句可能翻错了, 请大家指点). 同时州政府也拒绝了另一个关于花费数十亿澳元来提高乡村电线安全的重要建议.

新税种将取代已有的家庭保险中的火灾保险, 这意味着即使你已经为房产保了险, 仍需要付这个税.

州长John Brumby在回应委员会最后一份关于173人死亡的火灾报告的声明中声称政府将在未来六年里增加600名消防队员, 将有控制地燃烧已达到阻隔作用的活动增至之前的3倍.
内阁接受了委员会67条提案中的60条提案, 只拒绝了"溢价回购"的建议, 而剩下的六条, 包括升级改建电线, 都被原则上接受了.

除了征收此项房产税, 政府会再追加8亿6千7百万元拨款用于防止森林火灾.

让人很惊讶的是, 这次的政策抛弃了广为家庭接受的为防火而向保险公司支付的火灾险.

Brumby一直抵制这个税种, 但是反对党和保险公司很支持(这个应该翻错), 最终这个税种将在2012年7月1日起开始执行, 适用于将近290万个家庭.

Brumby说这个税种的金额将会和目前6亿澳元的火灾险金额持平, 大部分房主的负担应该和之前差不多.

他没有估计每个家庭需要负担多少金额, The Age估计大多数家庭每年需要负担最多200澳元.

和单一的税额比起来, 这个税种有了一些进步, 住在Toorak豪宅将比住Broadmeadows平房的人要付出多得多的税.

退休的老人和低收入者将享受到折扣.

财政部长John Lenders 说这个税能够让乡村和城市的防火机构的经费分配更合理,因为在现行的火灾保险中, 有10%左右的房东逃避了这笔费用.

反对党承诺, 如果他们在11月份的州大选中胜出, 将接受委员会的所有建议, 其中包括由纳税人基金来回购那些因巨大的火灾危险而将被放弃的房产.

但是Bruby称政府已经拒绝了这项提议, 因为这将增加人员伤亡的风险, 而不是相反.

"很明显, 如果那些地区有大量空置房屋, 将会增加火灾风险."

规划部长Justin Madden称, 如果减少高风险城镇的人口, 如Marysville, Daylesford,Halls Gap,Cann River和Aireys Inlet, 将会打击当地经济, 就业率以及会造成社区服务的缺失, 譬如学校和社区设施.

他说回购的费用对于纳税者来说也是太过昂贵的.

超过2000间房屋在黑色星期六被烧毁, 如果要回购这些房子所在的土地, 需要花费约7亿澳元.

整个维多利亚州有52个最有火灾风险的城镇乡村, 总共54000个家庭,"如果接受这个回购的建议, 我们将要花费超过200亿澳元."

政府将加强对火灾区域电线的检查, 并加大对没有正确维护电线的公司的惩罚力度.

但是委员会提出的关于把所有危险的线路用地下电缆,集束电缆或其它技术来代替的建议, 被认为太过昂贵而不予考虑.

Brumby说把所有电线全部纳入地下将要花费200亿澳元, 接下来20年, 每户家庭每年都要为此支付1000澳元的电费.

Richard Willingham报道
<The Age>

Households face new tax to fireproof state
Paul Austin
August 28, 2010

A NEW $600 million property tax, costing the average householder more than $100 a year, will help fund the state government's blueprint to prevent another bushfire tragedy on the scale of Black Saturday.

But the government has rejected the Bushfire Royal Commission's call for a taxpayer-funded voluntary buyback of properties in high-risk zones.

It also has stopped short of another key recommendation, a multibillion-dollar scheme to make all rural power lines safer.

The new tax will replace the existing fire services levy paid on household insurance premiums, meaning that all households will pay their share, rather than just insured properties.

Premier John Brumby, in announcing the government's response to the commission's final report on the fires that killed 173 people, said more than 600 extra professional firefighters would be employed to triple fuel-reduction burning over the next six years.

Cabinet has accepted 60 of the commission's 67 recommendations and rejected only one: buybacks. The remaining six, including upgrading power lines, have been embraced in part or ''in principle''.

As well as the property tax, the government will spend an extra $867 million over the next four years on bushfire safety.

The big surprise is the decision to dump the fire services levy on insurance premiums in favour of a broad-based tax on all property owners to help pay for firefighting services.

The tax, backed by the opposition and the insurance industry but long resisted by Mr Brumby, will apply to about 2.9 million properties from July 1, 2012.

Mr Brumby said it would raise the same amount as the fire services levy - at present about $600 million a year - so most property owners would end up contributing less than they did now via the levy.

He would not estimate how much an average household would have to pay, but The Age believes it will be less than $200 a year for most households.

It will be a progressive rather than flat tax - the owner of a Toorak mansion will pay vastly more than someone in a bungalow in Broadmeadows.

Pensioners and low-income earners will be eligible for concessions.

Treasurer John Lenders said the new tax would be a fairer way of helping pay for the Country Fire Authority and the Metropolitan Fire Brigade, because about 10 per cent of householders who did not insure their properties were getting ''a free ride'' under the present insurance-based levy.

The opposition has pledged that if it wins the November state election it will implement all the commission's recommendations, including the taxpayer-funded buyout of people who want to abandon properties in areas of extreme fire risk.

But Mr Brumby said the government had rejected this proposal because it could increase, not decrease, the risk of lives being lost.

''It just stands to reason that the more vacant blocks you have in those areas the greater the fire risk.''

Planning Minister Justin Madden said ''depopulating'' high-risk towns such as Marysville, Daylesford, Halls Gap, Cann River and Aireys Inlet would hit local businesses, cost jobs and result in the loss of services such as schools and community facilities.

He said a buyback could also be prohibitively expensive for taxpayers.

More than 2000 houses were destroyed on Black Saturday, and it would cost about $700 million to buy back the land on which they stood.

There were about 54,000 homes in the 52 most at-risk towns, villages and hamlets across Victoria, ''bringing the total cost of implementing this recommendation up beyond $20 billion''.

The government will do more inspections of power lines in bushfire areas and increase the penalties for companies found not to be properly maintaining them.

But it has ruled out as too expensive the commission's recommendations to progressively replace all dangerous lines with underground cables, bundled cable or other technology.

Mr Brumby said putting all lines underground could cost as much as $20 billion, resulting in power bills going up by as much as $1000 a year for 20 years.

With RICHARD WILLINGHAM

[ 本帖最后由 平常心 于 2010-8-29 00:15 编辑 ]