FALLBROOK -- Starting this month, if you're to blame for a traffic wreck in the Fallbrook area, your insurance company will get a bill for the time and effort it takes firefighters to clean up your mess.

The new fee, or "crash tax," as some opponents call it, is not unique to the North County Fire Protection District, which serves roughly 50,000 people from Fallbrook to Bonsall to Rainbow.

Similar charges have been approved across California and the nation in recent months as cash-strapped local governments try to balance their recession-wracked budgets. Fire departments from Fresno to Hemet to Spring Valley are considering similar programs or have already put them in place, said Chief Bill Metcalf of the Fallbrook-area district.

Insurance companies are the main opponents. They call the fee "double taxation," noting that homeowners already pay property taxes to cover emergency response.

Metcalf, however, said the charge is a fair way to recover costs during a tough economic time.

"The only person that will pay is the insurance company of the at-fault driver," the chief said by phone last week. "People who aren't at fault, they or their insurance company won't experience any payment."

Bills will range from $435 to $2,100 depending on the severity of the car wreck and service required. The charges were calculated based on per-hour labor and equipment costs, Metcalf said.

If firefighters simply help with traffic control and clean up spilled gasoline, the cost will be less than $500. But if their response involves battling a car fire, helping victims with oxygen masks, cutting apart a car to rescue victims and helping a medical helicopter land, then the cost will jump to $2,100, according to the district's plan.

The chief said firefighters won't be pulling up to fender-benders just to collect billing information. Engine captains will have the discretion to wave off a response if it's not warranted, he said.

Metcalf said the program should go into effect by the end of June.

Bills come as revenue declines

District leaders expect the new bills to raise $144,000 annually. That money will help cover the cost of responding to the roughly 500 traffic collisions in the district each year, Metcalf said. The district encompasses 92 square miles of agricultural and increasingly suburban areas.

The money should help offset recent revenue declines, said Metcalf, acknowledging those declines spurred the new billing program.

"In today's economy, with pressure to maintain services conflicting with significant revenue reductions, fire departments across California and across the country are actively gearing up and implementing cost recovery/billing programs," Metcalf wrote to district board members this spring before they unanimously approved the new charges.

The district's property tax revenue fell 3 percent, or $400,000, this fiscal year, Metcalf said. It's expected to slide an additional $500,000 next fiscal year, he said.

Metcalf said the district has made cuts across nearly every part of its $14 million budget, though it has avoided firefighter and fire engine cuts. To save money, the chief said, four vacant district administrator posts will be frozen for the next fiscal year starting July 1.

And while the district has amassed roughly $3 million in reserve funds, Metcalf said leaders are wary of touching that money because of growing concerns the state may raid local fire funds to help balance its multibillion-dollar budget shortfall.

Insurers balk at new bills

Insurance companies strongly oppose the Fallbrook-area district's plans. They warn that auto insurance rates are sure to rise if similar plans continue to pop up.

"(The bills) are going to come back to the community in the form of higher rates," said Mike Rossman, a San Diego-based spokesman for State Farm Insurance. Rossman declined to say whether State Farm would cover the cost of the bills, noting each insurance claim must be "handled on its own merits."

He said the medical portion of such bills -- essentially the cost for paramedics to patch up injured motorists and passengers -- is typically paid.

Metcalf said the district expects to recover between 60 and 70 percent of billed amounts, based on the experience of other fire districts that already charge for emergency response.

Bill Packer, spokesman for the Association of California Insurance Cos., said several states have banned the "crash tax," as his association calls the charge. Those states include Oklahoma, Indiana, Pennsylvania, Missouri, Georgia and Tennessee, according to AccidentTax.com, a Web site created by opponents of the charges.

Packer labeled the bills "double taxation," noting residents already pay property taxes for emergency response.

Some of the protest centers on charges that single out out-of-town drivers who cause accidents. Several local governments across the state and country have approved such charges. In the Fallbrook area, the charges are aimed at at-fault residents, no matter where they live.

California Assemblyman Anthony Portantino, D-Pasadena, introduced a bill earlier this year to prohibit public agencies from taking into account a person's residency when seeking payment for emergency response.

The bill probably will not be voted on until later this year or in early 2010, according to the state insurance association.

Rossman, of State Farm, said the Fallbrook-area district's plan has a key flaw: It doesn't go after uninsured drivers.

Indeed, the district won't seek those payments, Metcalf said. He explained that the cost of going after uninsured drivers would be more than what the district could ever expect to recover from them.

Mixed views on Main

So far, few Fallbrook residents have spoken out against the new program. No one, in fact, opposed it when it was discussed at two recent public meetings, Metcalf said.

Informed of the plan by a reporter last week, several residents in downtown Fallbrook said they had mixed views on the issue.

"I would probably just say no because it's their job (to respond to accident scenes)," said Kim Smith, after lugging groceries into her minivan near Major Market. "But if someone was drunk and caused an accident, maybe that (charge) would be OK."

Jim Marshall said he's fine with trying the plan as long as district leaders review it after a year. Should an improved economy replenish district coffers, the charge should probably be rescinded, he said.

"Do it on a trial basis," said Marshall, a local writer who was reading a book on a bench near Main Avenue and Fig Street. "Run it for a year and bring back the results, and let the electorate vote on it."

Metcalf said the plan is an experiment and will be reviewed over time.

Contact staff writer Chris Nichols at 760-740-5426.