Editor’s Opinion Ed Ballam
It’s January, and a lot of municipalities are deep into their budget cycles, planning for expenditures to come up in the 2023/2024 fiscal year.
It’s a process that takes up to six months and culminates with either the voters or the city councilors voting to approve funding for anticipated expenses into the near and often far future. Oh, and for those who might not know, the fiscal year varies with between towns and cities and encompasses 12 months that doesn’t follow the calendar year. For example, the federal government’s fiscal year runs from Oct. 1 to Sept. 30.
One thing to be certain about is those making the decisions on fire department budgets, no matter when they are making them, they had better put in more than they think they’ll need and then a little more on top of that, because everything connected with the fire service industry has gotten even more expensive.
As we learned from a variety of fire industry leaders in last month’s issue, the fire service is not immune from all the influences that affect the economy, including inflation and labor and supply chain issues. Together, those all make for more expensive products and longer wait times.
To compensate for those increases in prices and delivery times, government types will have to budget more money to accommodate those factors. Coming up short of funds when it’s time to place an order for anything from a pair of gloves to a $2 million aerial will make for a bad day, to say the least.
Let’s not forget paid/career fire departments. It’s a fact that up to 90 percent of a career department’s budget goes toward payroll. And, like all workers in every sector of the economy, firefighters and EMS providers are not immune from inflation. They’ll need increasingly larger cost of living adjustments just to maintain their present status. That will increase the bottom line of the budget in a hurry.
Much of any public service budget is nondiscretionary, such as payroll. But there are lots of other factors that fire and emergency medical services (EMS) officers can’t do much about either, like cost of diesel fuel, which at the time of this writing is hovering around $6 per gallon, and insurance costs. Add to that list building maintenance and heating and cooling costs, vehicle upgrades and repairs, replenishing of essential goods and equipment, as well as debt services for payments on previous purchases.
Factoring in inflation has always been part of any budgetary exercise, but it seems even more pressing this year than ever. Government officials from selectboard members to city council presidents to the mayors all have an obligation to strike a balance between a balanced budget with a reasonable tax rate and ensuring firefighters and EMS providers have what they need to do their jobs safely.
Given all the signs that are out there, it would behoove those budget builders and those crunching municipal numbers to boost the budgets for emergency services. It will be a challenge to accommodate those almost certain increases without driving the tax rates through the roofs.
Helping to make any tax increase more palatable is the fact that most fire departments nationwide enjoy a 95 percent favorable rating among those populations served. Firefighters and EMS workers have achieved almost universal hero status, and whatever they need they usually get. Before you start writing letters in disagreement, I get that it’s not like that everywhere. There are some tyrannical mayors and selectboard members who chronically stick things in the wheel spokes to derail public fire service; from my experience, those are the exceptions, not the rule.
That high level of confidence in the services provided by firefighters and EMS providers comes from consistent customer service. Firefighters do whatever they can with whatever they have to save lives and property—it’s what we do. I had the pleasure of meeting the late-great Chief Alan Brunacini a few times over the years. He was a pioneer in the science of treating taxpayers like customers and that has paid off over the years. The better firefighters do their work and EMS providers care for their patients, the more likely public service agencies will receive the funds needed to do good work. It’s that simple.
So, for all of you out there neck-deep into budgeting, planning meetings, public hearings, and preparing for votes, make sure you leave enough money, and then some, to provide for the people who provide services that matter most in your communities. Fire and EMS personnel have to be somewhere near the top of that long list of priority spending.
And, don’t forget, EVERYTHING is going to cost more and take longer to get. That’s an inescapable fact.
