Budget Crunch Time

[tootall]

With the economy in the crisis its in. The State placing a cap on increasing taxes at the local level and the repaying of pensions.

What if any effect is this having on your department?

Can you department still function if it was asked to cut its budget by say 10-20%

What type of stuff would you cut from your budget? (Truck Maintenance/ Testing/ Training)

Have you seen some of the nice to have stuff removed from your budget?

[papacheese]

The ongoing budget crisis is having an impact for us on multiple levels. In the past, funding wasn't a "hot button" topic, but now everything is getting re-examined closely under the budgetary microscope. In our case, off-site training will probably be trimmed; equipment requests now need to be minutely justified before any funds are approporiated. The days of "we want one of these and two of those..." are long gone; if it's not needed, it's not budgeted.

Thankfully, the carving knife had yet to be wielded in the health and wellness end of the picture; we are fortunate to have a good physical exam program in place as well as a Member Assistance Program. Last year, after two years of effort by the Health and Safety Committte, the Board retained the professional services of a designated Department Physician to help guide us towards eventual complaince with NFPA 1500. Funding for member safety - which includes SCBA and PPE, is usually never questioned.

It would be easy to target our Board members as being bean counters, but the truth of the matter is that their responsibilty lies primarily with the taxpayers and not the members. It isn't easy to find that perfect balance point between making certain the department is ready, equipped, and trained to respond and not wasting tax dollars. Now more thah ever it's important to do your research and be prepared to defend and justify your funding requests. Just saying "But I want this" no longer works.

Being from a Fire District, I'm thankful that the Board members at least are well-educated in the needs of the fire service; I can't imagine it's easy to convince non-educated municipal managers and elected officials why you need certain items and services. Those of you who come under direct municipal funding probably have to work ten times harder....

[shader101]

We probally have more than our share of fat fireman but budget wise any leaner and we can rename this place after a third world country!