There is misinformation being put out there about insurance rates related to the fire protection class. Going from a 3 to a 4 would be so minimal you would not notice. Going from a 5 to an 8, on average, $50-100 a year at most. I'm being very generous with the $100 change in premium. Something else happened with that residents bill that generated that much of a change. You cannot spin a narrative of an increase and blame it on that change. As an insurance agent reading this, it's laughable. If the home stayed at a protection class 5, they still would have experienced the large rate increase that occurred. I have been an insurance agent for over 27 years.
That's very interesting. A journalist in another city I was talking to about this said something similar. She mentioned hearing individual anecdotes but never saw a massive increase to a number of people.
Since I have someone in the industry on the line: Why is ISO kept from the public? I don't understand why I can't seem to access this information. Even if it doesn't affect insurance as much as some lead others to believe, it does say something about the underlying departments I assume and it would be good for the public to see how various departments compare. (ie, a sudden sharp drop in ISO would definitely be a signal of something.)
I will start out by saying if the rating went up to a 10 (the highest), then yes, I could believe the increase in premium, but it went to an 8. Insurance companies use the ISO rating to determine their rates, so could one company assign a higher rating to different numbers? ISO is difficult to speak with as well, because they really do not need to speak with the public. We usually only can communicate with them through faxing/emailing a form if they have a home rated incorrectly, usually due to a new address that is not reflecting properly. They rank fire departments and assign scores. They analyze size of department, the amount/size/and type of equipment they have, and they also analyze the response times for every call they receive. That is just a quick overview of how ISO comes up with their ratings. It is all facts and figures and they are numbers crunchers. I do know certain fire departments will send out more equipment needed for every call because each vehicle adds to their response time numbers, which help them acheive a lower ISO score. Let me know if you would like to discuss in more detail.
The village is conveniently leaving out, and the media is failing to cover the fact that this tax will nearly double in year three and triple in year four.
"Will the fee increase in subsequent years? By all accounts, probably. Finke says he runs a pretty tight ship with SAFER Fire District, so there isn’t much to cut except for staffing, and that is definitely not happening since they’re already short-staffed. And with costs going up, and the district eventually needing to pay for all nine new firefighters, Weston officials definitely didn’t rule out further fire fee increases." I'd be surprised if there were not further increases to the fees, since expenses will go up (and are baked in since the village will have to fund more firefighters).
The Finance Director, Jessica Trautman, at the last village board meeting said the village really needs to start reducing its spending. I thought that was an interesting comment and I think in addition to Wausau and Marathon County, I need to really keep track of Weston's budget this year.
I caught that as well, and I don’t think it’s the first time she’s sounded alarm bells about their finances.
The fact of the matter is they KNEW this was a problem. They held a (what I contend was illegal) closed session in their 6/24 meeting to discuss this. In their July 2024 meeting they passed a resolution to hold a referendum on this in the spring of 2025. Why didn’t that referendum happen? I’d love to get an answer to that.
There is misinformation being put out there about insurance rates related to the fire protection class. Going from a 3 to a 4 would be so minimal you would not notice. Going from a 5 to an 8, on average, $50-100 a year at most. I'm being very generous with the $100 change in premium. Something else happened with that residents bill that generated that much of a change. You cannot spin a narrative of an increase and blame it on that change. As an insurance agent reading this, it's laughable. If the home stayed at a protection class 5, they still would have experienced the large rate increase that occurred. I have been an insurance agent for over 27 years.
That's very interesting. A journalist in another city I was talking to about this said something similar. She mentioned hearing individual anecdotes but never saw a massive increase to a number of people.
Since I have someone in the industry on the line: Why is ISO kept from the public? I don't understand why I can't seem to access this information. Even if it doesn't affect insurance as much as some lead others to believe, it does say something about the underlying departments I assume and it would be good for the public to see how various departments compare. (ie, a sudden sharp drop in ISO would definitely be a signal of something.)
I will start out by saying if the rating went up to a 10 (the highest), then yes, I could believe the increase in premium, but it went to an 8. Insurance companies use the ISO rating to determine their rates, so could one company assign a higher rating to different numbers? ISO is difficult to speak with as well, because they really do not need to speak with the public. We usually only can communicate with them through faxing/emailing a form if they have a home rated incorrectly, usually due to a new address that is not reflecting properly. They rank fire departments and assign scores. They analyze size of department, the amount/size/and type of equipment they have, and they also analyze the response times for every call they receive. That is just a quick overview of how ISO comes up with their ratings. It is all facts and figures and they are numbers crunchers. I do know certain fire departments will send out more equipment needed for every call because each vehicle adds to their response time numbers, which help them acheive a lower ISO score. Let me know if you would like to discuss in more detail.
The village is conveniently leaving out, and the media is failing to cover the fact that this tax will nearly double in year three and triple in year four.
"Will the fee increase in subsequent years? By all accounts, probably. Finke says he runs a pretty tight ship with SAFER Fire District, so there isn’t much to cut except for staffing, and that is definitely not happening since they’re already short-staffed. And with costs going up, and the district eventually needing to pay for all nine new firefighters, Weston officials definitely didn’t rule out further fire fee increases." I'd be surprised if there were not further increases to the fees, since expenses will go up (and are baked in since the village will have to fund more firefighters).
I should have said “most of the media.” Nevertheless, they really seem to be downplaying the amount of the increase
The Finance Director, Jessica Trautman, at the last village board meeting said the village really needs to start reducing its spending. I thought that was an interesting comment and I think in addition to Wausau and Marathon County, I need to really keep track of Weston's budget this year.
I caught that as well, and I don’t think it’s the first time she’s sounded alarm bells about their finances.
The fact of the matter is they KNEW this was a problem. They held a (what I contend was illegal) closed session in their 6/24 meeting to discuss this. In their July 2024 meeting they passed a resolution to hold a referendum on this in the spring of 2025. Why didn’t that referendum happen? I’d love to get an answer to that.
That last bit is on my radar as well.