Legislators review volunteer fire department funding

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BY DEBORAH MCKEON | TELEGRAM STAFF


Posted on May 2, 2013

by Deborah McKeon





With volunteer fire departments struggling to stay operational through drought and an unstable economy, the Texas Legislature’s Budget Conference Committee will affect what money is allocated for the next two years to local volunteer fire departments.

Volunteer Firemen’s Insurance Services Inc., the insurance provider for Texas non-profit emergency service organizations, said that beginning in 2007, the entire sum of $30 million paid to the state by insurance companies for Texas non-profit emergency service organizations was allocated to the volunteer fire departments and Texas A&M Forest Service in the form of grants and other funding to take care of repairs and purchases of bunker gear and other needs.

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Senate Bill 1 approved $2 million for West to help recover from the devastation left behind by the fertilizer plant explosion and added another $10 million from the Rainy Day Fund for funding through the Texas Forest Service for volunteer fire departments to purchase large pieces of equipment, Sheffield said.

http://www.tdtnews.com/news/article_6edca2b4-b2da-11e2-bfcf-0019bb30f31a.html

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1. Legislature Looks West

Legislature Looks West

The House Committee on Homeland Security and Public Safety held the first official inquiry into the April 17 explosion and fire at a fertilizer plant in West. On May 1, the committee received testimony from multiple state agencies, including the Texas Com­mis­sion on Environmental Quality and the Texas Division of Emergency Management. Gov. Rick Perry has already taken a publicity tour, arguing that Texas' pro-business (i.e. lax to nonexistent) regulatory system was not to blame for letting the West Fertilizer Co. stockpile 270 tons of combustible ammonium nitrate fertilizer.
http://www.austinchronicle.com/news/2013-05-03/lege-lines/

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2. It's Texas. I am assuming the RW controlled legislature is champing at the bit to completely

eliminate all funding for volunteer fire departments. And next on the agenda: trying to make volunteer fire departments illegal, and requiring that all such services be provided by private contractors.