We have the same situation in Knoxville. In the city everything is covered, fire, ambulance, police, garbage, even leaf pickup. In the county there is only a sheriff. My house is in the county. I pay $1300 in property taxes a year. The same house in the city would be $2800. I pay $680 for fire and ambulance and $217 for garbage. That still leaves me $600 ahead plus my homeowner’s insurance gives me a discount for subscribing to the fire service.
 

The city has been chasing doctors and lawyers west for the last 40 years. A new development/ country club is built then the city annexes and they build another a few blocks down. The city/county map looks like an octopus where the city has annexed the main streets and businesses for taxes but left the less valuable and accessible residential neighborhoods in the county. My house falls in that category. I’m 500 yards from the city boundary but Kingston Pike continues to be in the city for another eleven miles. It would go further but they incorporated another town called Farragut to protect Seven Oaks, Fox Den, and Avalon developments from annexation.
 

Unlike the story if I fail to pay Rural Metro still comes to put out my fire. They will however charge me $1200/hour with 1 hour minimum. My home owner’s will only pay the $680 I should be paying to subscribe. I personally would love to be able to give the city $75/year and get coverage.  The county and city fire houses are only a block from each other and less than seven from my house.
 

I  have no sympathy for the first people in the original story. I’ve seen my share of really rich, really cheap people. In my case, being in the county and having to pay for individual services is still cheaper than living in the city. Seventy five a year, I spend twice that on movies. On the other side of the coin read this story about a fire department that’s almost out of business because only 20% pay.
 

http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2010/oct/11/karns-fire-service-forced-to-enact-fee/?partner=yahoo_feeds