Over 96 firefighters of the Northwest Regional Firefighters Association gathered with state legislators in Frazee on Jan. 21 to discuss concerns and challenges with operating their fire departments, and specifically about funding to train their volunteers.
Legislators in attendance were State Representatives Bud Nornes and Brita Sailer along with State Senators Dan Skogen and Rod Skoe.
Representatives of the Minnesota State Fire Chiefs Association provided a brief overview of the Fire Safety Account, which was established by the 2006 Minnesota State Legislature. The Fire Safety Account law repealed a hidden tax on homeowner and commercial fire insurance, and replaced it with a transparent fee. This fee is specifically dedicated to funding the State Fire Marshal's Office, fire training and regional response programs.
However, due to the timing of the collections and the state's fiscal year, legislators were forced to use estimates on revenue projections, which resulted in a fund balance of just over $4.5 million. To enable firefighters to use this money for training, the legislature must appropriate the money from the account and specify it for fire training.
An analysis of data obtained from the Office of the State Auditor for calendar year 2007, which is the most recent data available, shows that the state spends less on fire protection than on administration and finance, parks and recreation, public works and law enforcement.
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At the township, city and county level, $286,500 million is spent on fire protection, $342,568 on administration and finance, $428,049 on parks and recreation, $709,190 on public works and just over $1.2 billion on law enforcement.
When asked what is spent on training by local departments, firefighters in the room answered with yearly budget numbers ranging from as little as zero to $10,000.
When asked by legislators about their needs and training requirements members identified fire training, command and leadership training, vehicle rescue, water and ice rescue, collapse rescue, medical response, investigation, inspection, education, hazardous materials, weapons of mass destruction, terrorism and several more.
Representatives from the Fire Chiefs Association restated that the fire service was simply urging legislators to appropriate money specifically collected for fire training and that members of the audience painted an almost desperate need given by all of the 24 departments in the room were already challenged and suffered budget cuts to their training divisions this year.
All the legislators in attendance were supportive of the efficient model of the volunteer fire service and that funding for training is imperative. However, all legislators noted the unprecedented fiscal challenges the state and local jurisdictions are facing, and the impact that would have on funding for training.
