Gov. Perry cut firefighters budget by 75%: Republican Leadership and Foresight?

[Truthmatters]

See you can have your cake and eat it too.

Well umm it does seem to be a Texican political concept anyway.

Texicans are latino texans, they are usually democrats.

 

[Truthmatters]

State funding for volunteer fire departments is taking a big hit. It is going from $30 million to $7 million. Those departments are already facing financial strains.

The State Firemen’s and Fire Marshals’ Association of Texas represents 21,000 state firefighters. The Association says more than 80 percent of volunteer firefighters are reporting taking a personal hit in the budget crisis. They have started using their own money to help pay for equipment and supplies.

quit lying , they are using their own MONEY to fight the fires.

This is the world republicans want to see.

Volunteer firefighters having to spend their own money to travel to a fire and buy their own equipment.

This while fucking rich assholes sit in mansions and watch retired firemen spend their own money to save their house after getting tax cuts because ......... well because they are rich.

 

[JoeB131]

State funding for volunteer fire departments is taking a big hit. It is going from $30 million to $7 million. Those departments are already facing financial strains.

The State Firemen’s and Fire Marshals’ Association of Texas represents 21,000 state firefighters. The Association says more than 80 percent of volunteer firefighters are reporting taking a personal hit in the budget crisis. They have started using their own money to help pay for equipment and supplies.

quit lying , they are using their own MONEY to fight the fires.

This is the world republicans want to see.

Volunteer firefighters having to spend their own money to travel to a fire and buy their own equipment.

This while fucking rich assholes sit in mansions and watch retired firemen spend their own money to save their house after getting tax cuts because ......... well because they are rich.

Fire fighting should be a LOCAL concern, not a state one. If a town wants a fire department, it should pay for it out of its own funds, which is what most municipalities do, including the little town of 8000 I live in.

And I guess the volunteers can stand by and watch as the Rich guys' house burns... which I guess would make you happy.

 

[rightwinger]

Firefighters in Texas struggle with financial crisis | kvue.com Austin

State funding for volunteer fire departments is taking a big hit. It is going from $30 million to $7 million. Those departments are already facing financial strains.

The State Firemen’s and Fire Marshals’ Association of Texas represents 21,000 state firefighters. The Association says more than 80 percent of volunteer firefighters are reporting taking a personal hit in the budget crisis. They have started using their own money to help pay for equipment and supplies.

----------------------------------------------------------------

Gee, I wonder if anyone will ask him about this during the next debate?

Does "prayer" work? Has it worked for Texas? Non believers want to know.

Texas lawmakers are passing legislation. How does this relate to Governor Perry? Did he request that this legislation be enacted?

And from what I have read so far, the budget for the current year is still intact. Can you prove otherwise?

California has slashed their firefighting budgets. Any comment on Democrats who aren't born agains doing the very same thing that the Texas lawmakers are doing?

Well, I guess it's OK as long as you have the Feds to come in and bail you out

 

[Truthmatters]

State funding for volunteer fire departments is taking a big hit. It is going from $30 million to $7 million. Those departments are already facing financial strains.

The State Firemen’s and Fire Marshals’ Association of Texas represents 21,000 state firefighters. The Association says more than 80 percent of volunteer firefighters are reporting taking a personal hit in the budget crisis. They have started using their own money to help pay for equipment and supplies.

quit lying , they are using their own MONEY to fight the fires.

This is the world republicans want to see.

Volunteer firefighters having to spend their own money to travel to a fire and buy their own equipment.

This while fucking rich assholes sit in mansions and watch retired firemen spend their own money to save their house after getting tax cuts because ......... well because they are rich.

Fire fighting should be a LOCAL concern, not a state one. If a town wants a fire department, it should pay for it out of its own funds, which is what most municipalities do, including the little town of 8000 I live in.

And I guess the volunteers can stand by and watch as the Rich guys' house burns... which I guess would make you happy.

fire doesnt recognise city , county , state or even country borders you complete fool.


NO it should not be a local concern. There is NO logical reason for you to say that. The only reason you say that is you are a blind partisan hack.

NOTE: those firefighters did not just watch it burn did they?

They spent their own money to travel to the fire and paid for their own equipment for the pleasure of risking their lives to save people and property.

They are HEROS


you are an idiot and a coward.

 

[Truthmatters]

gee where did everyone go?

 

[tinydancer]

State funding for volunteer fire departments is taking a big hit. It is going from $30 million to $7 million. Those departments are already facing financial strains.

The State Firemen’s and Fire Marshals’ Association of Texas represents 21,000 state firefighters. The Association says more than 80 percent of volunteer firefighters are reporting taking a personal hit in the budget crisis. They have started using their own money to help pay for equipment and supplies.

quit lying , they are using their own MONEY to fight the fires.

This is the world republicans want to see.

Volunteer firefighters having to spend their own money to travel to a fire and buy their own equipment.

This while fucking rich assholes sit in mansions and watch retired firemen spend their own money to save their house after getting tax cuts because ......... well because they are rich.

Ok. I'm not going to let you get away with this bullshit that it's just rich Republicans who are gouging firefighting budgets.

STOP being a partisan hack please. I have put up links and commentary which prove that Governor Jerry Brown (D) requested his California lawmakers to slash and burn the firefighting budget and they did so.

Now that being said, instead of being a partisan hack, as a conservative and a real hard core conservative, I think anyone and everyone who is involved in government at any level who executes these radical and far too deep budget cuts is a moron, an asshole, a retard a jerk and above all else not a true servant of the people.

This is an essential service to protect the lives of citizens. It has to be budgeted in on all three levels of government.

Now that being said, what part don't you understand that freaking Democrats are being stupid enough to pull this bullshit off as well?

That slashing firefighting budgets is the penultimate in bipartisan retardation.

But do not sit there and keep robo repeating that it's just rich fat cat Republicans when I have proved otherwise.

 

[CrusaderFrank]

I saw this. It's basically the Conservative meme. Cut cut cut..and when something doesn't work blame the people that are still trying to do the job.

Happened here during the snowstorm. Santitation department was at it's lowest manpower and when the snowstorm hit..snow removal was slow..understandably.

But right wing papers like the New York Post put out a story that the Santitation Department was doing it on purpose.

So in your view, New York City is a bastion of Conservatism. Interesting. Stop pretending to take your meds

 

[Seawytch]

If they are "volunteers", doesn't that mean they don't need to be paid?

Sounds to me like they cut a department that wasn't working terribly well.

Where did the OP mention ANYTHING about pay? It says that their budgets were cut and now have to pay for their own equipment and supplies. Volunteer FDs need training too. Hard to do that without any money.

Sorry Joe, you can't spin this as a positive for your guy.


I think it's just that god hates republicans. Remember Bobby Jindahl talking about how we don't need to fund volcano monitoring...and then a volcano erupted like days later?

A volcano not in the united states, as I recall. I don't think anyone even remembers that exccept you.

The thing is, maybe the legislature (not Perry) realized this program wasn't worth it because a lot of these guys weren't showing up when needed or weren't effective.

I would like to see what organized fire departments spend in Texas compared to this pittance for the volunteers who may not even be showing up. I would also like to see what the amount spent on the National Guard is.

Final note, what real use are these volunteers? If they are trained to fight fires on city blocks, how useful are they in fighting wildfires, which require very specialized equipment to fight.

And still the US is third in the number of active volcanoes.

"Maybe"? You're spitballing? Not just that but disparaging the volunteer firemen with your suppositions? What evidence do you have that volunteer fire fighters were not showing up or were not fighting fires effectively? Anything beyond your guesswork?

These are severe cuts of over 50% we are talking about, not just trimming some fat here and there.

I'm sure Texans sleep safer at night knowing their fire department may run out of gas getting to a fire...but the rich got tax breaks!

 

[Truthmatters]

It was in the US

 

[tinydancer]

State funding for volunteer fire departments is taking a big hit. It is going from $30 million to $7 million. Those departments are already facing financial strains.

The State Firemen’s and Fire Marshals’ Association of Texas represents 21,000 state firefighters. The Association says more than 80 percent of volunteer firefighters are reporting taking a personal hit in the budget crisis. They have started using their own money to help pay for equipment and supplies.

quit lying , they are using their own MONEY to fight the fires.

This is the world republicans want to see.

Volunteer firefighters having to spend their own money to travel to a fire and buy their own equipment.

This while fucking rich assholes sit in mansions and watch retired firemen spend their own money to save their house after getting tax cuts because ......... well because they are rich.

Fire fighting should be a LOCAL concern, not a state one. If a town wants a fire department, it should pay for it out of its own funds, which is what most municipalities do, including the little town of 8000 I live in.

And I guess the volunteers can stand by and watch as the Rich guys' house burns... which I guess would make you happy.

With all due respect, let's be real here. When you have wildfires burning across Federal, State and Municipal lands how does this become a local issue?

Now, I'm sure any operation be it firefighting or police or a myriad of other services can find some way, some how to trim their budgets.

But no way in hell is firefighting just a local issue. And truly, just because a liberal on a message board gets your dander up, please don't let them trap you into slagging all volunteer firefighters with a union like brush.

Wildfire fighters are some of the bravest men and women I have ever known. My cousin works out of Thunder Bay in Northern Ontario and it's a job from Hades and I do a lot of praying for him every summer as he criss crosses the country to fight fires in the bush.

 

[Truthmatters]

Jindal Versus The Volcano



With Monday's massive volcano eruption in Alaska likely to leave Anchorage and Gov. Sarah Palin's hometown covered in ash, a Democratic strategist sends over the reminder that just a month and a half ago, another up-and-coming Republican star, Gov. Bobby Jindal, mocked the very notion of volcano monitoring.

Speaking in the non-State of the Union rebuttal, the Louisiana Republican said that instead of spending $140 million "for something called 'volcano monitoring,'" Congress "should be monitoring is the eruption of spending in Washington, D.C."

 

[CrusaderFrank]

Why won't Obama raise the sea levels to put out the wildfires?

 

[Truthmatters]

State funding for volunteer fire departments is taking a big hit. It is going from $30 million to $7 million. Those departments are already facing financial strains.

The State Firemen’s and Fire Marshals’ Association of Texas represents 21,000 state firefighters. The Association says more than 80 percent of volunteer firefighters are reporting taking a personal hit in the budget crisis. They have started using their own money to help pay for equipment and supplies.

quit lying , they are using their own MONEY to fight the fires.

This is the world republicans want to see.

Volunteer firefighters having to spend their own money to travel to a fire and buy their own equipment.

This while fucking rich assholes sit in mansions and watch retired firemen spend their own money to save their house after getting tax cuts because ......... well because they are rich.

Fire fighting should be a LOCAL concern, not a state one. If a town wants a fire department, it should pay for it out of its own funds, which is what most municipalities do, including the little town of 8000 I live in.

And I guess the volunteers can stand by and watch as the Rich guys' house burns... which I guess would make you happy.

fire doesnt recognise city , county , state or even country borders you complete fool.


NO it should not be a local concern. There is NO logical reason for you to say that. The only reason you say that is you are a blind partisan hack.

NOTE: those firefighters did not just watch it burn did they?

They spent their own money to travel to the fire and paid for their own equipment for the pleasure of risking their lives to save people and property.

They are HEROS


you are an idiot and a coward.

He ran away after I told him that

 

[Seawytch]

State funding for volunteer fire departments is taking a big hit. It is going from $30 million to $7 million. Those departments are already facing financial strains.

The State Firemen’s and Fire Marshals’ Association of Texas represents 21,000 state firefighters. The Association says more than 80 percent of volunteer firefighters are reporting taking a personal hit in the budget crisis. They have started using their own money to help pay for equipment and supplies.

quit lying , they are using their own MONEY to fight the fires.

This is the world republicans want to see.

Volunteer firefighters having to spend their own money to travel to a fire and buy their own equipment.

This while fucking rich assholes sit in mansions and watch retired firemen spend their own money to save their house after getting tax cuts because ......... well because they are rich.

Ok. I'm not going to let you get away with this bullshit that it's just rich Republicans who are gouging firefighting budgets.

STOP being a partisan hack please. I have put up links and commentary which prove that Governor Jerry Brown (D) requested his California lawmakers to slash and burn the firefighting budget and they did so.

Now that being said, instead of being a partisan hack, as a conservative and a real hard core conservative, I think anyone and everyone who is involved in government at any level who executes these radical and far too deep budget cuts is a moron, an asshole, a retard a jerk and above all else not a true servant of the people.

This is an essential service to protect the lives of citizens. It has to be budgeted in on all three levels of government.

Now that being said, what part don't you understand that freaking Democrats are being stupid enough to pull this bullshit off as well?

That slashing firefighting budgets is the penultimate in bipartisan retardation.

But do not sit there and keep robo repeating that it's just rich fat cat Republicans when I have proved otherwise.

Let's contrast this shall we?

Texas is proposing cutting the state's volunteer firefighting budget by more than 50%.

California is proposing cutting the number of people per truck from 4 to 3.

Are these two things really equal in your eyes?

 

[Seawytch]

Jindal Versus The Volcano



With Monday's massive volcano eruption in Alaska likely to leave Anchorage and Gov. Sarah Palin's hometown covered in ash, a Democratic strategist sends over the reminder that just a month and a half ago, another up-and-coming Republican star, Gov. Bobby Jindal, mocked the very notion of volcano monitoring.

Speaking in the non-State of the Union rebuttal, the Louisiana Republican said that instead of spending $140 million "for something called 'volcano monitoring,'" Congress "should be monitoring is the eruption of spending in Washington, D.C."

See...god hates republicans.

 

[Seawytch]

Why won't Obama raise the sea levels to put out the wildfires?

I thought that's what Prophet Perry was trying to do with his praying.

Perry Compares Himself to a Prophet

 

[Conservative]

The only reason you say that is you are a blind partisan hack... you are an idiot and a coward.

That has to be the biggest example of the pot calling the kettle black I have ever seen on this board.

 

[tinydancer]

Fire fighting should be a LOCAL concern, not a state one. If a town wants a fire department, it should pay for it out of its own funds, which is what most municipalities do, including the little town of 8000 I live in.

And I guess the volunteers can stand by and watch as the Rich guys' house burns... which I guess would make you happy.

fire doesnt recognise city , county , state or even country borders you complete fool.


NO it should not be a local concern. There is NO logical reason for you to say that. The only reason you say that is you are a blind partisan hack.

NOTE: those firefighters did not just watch it burn did they?

They spent their own money to travel to the fire and paid for their own equipment for the pleasure of risking their lives to save people and property.

They are HEROS


you are an idiot and a coward.

He ran away after I told him that

I have no intention of running away.

I'm still here hoping that you will address my posts that have Democrats in California slashing and burning their firefighters budget as well.

 

[tinydancer]

State funding for volunteer fire departments is taking a big hit. It is going from $30 million to $7 million. Those departments are already facing financial strains.

The State Firemen’s and Fire Marshals’ Association of Texas represents 21,000 state firefighters. The Association says more than 80 percent of volunteer firefighters are reporting taking a personal hit in the budget crisis. They have started using their own money to help pay for equipment and supplies.

quit lying , they are using their own MONEY to fight the fires.

This is the world republicans want to see.

Volunteer firefighters having to spend their own money to travel to a fire and buy their own equipment.

This while fucking rich assholes sit in mansions and watch retired firemen spend their own money to save their house after getting tax cuts because ......... well because they are rich.

Ok. I'm not going to let you get away with this bullshit that it's just rich Republicans who are gouging firefighting budgets.

STOP being a partisan hack please. I have put up links and commentary which prove that Governor Jerry Brown (D) requested his California lawmakers to slash and burn the firefighting budget and they did so.

Now that being said, instead of being a partisan hack, as a conservative and a real hard core conservative, I think anyone and everyone who is involved in government at any level who executes these radical and far too deep budget cuts is a moron, an asshole, a retard a jerk and above all else not a true servant of the people.

This is an essential service to protect the lives of citizens. It has to be budgeted in on all three levels of government.

Now that being said, what part don't you understand that freaking Democrats are being stupid enough to pull this bullshit off as well?

That slashing firefighting budgets is the penultimate in bipartisan retardation.

But do not sit there and keep robo repeating that it's just rich fat cat Republicans when I have proved otherwise.

Let's contrast this shall we?

Texas is proposing cutting the state's volunteer firefighting budget by more than 50%.

California is proposing cutting the number of people per truck from 4 to 3.

Are these two things really equal in your eyes?

Why you're no daisy at all this morning.

Budget cuts mean fewer firefighter to fight California wildfires


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By Peter Hecht
The Sacramento Bee
Published: Monday, Aug. 1, 2011 - 3:59 am

Just north of Highway 180 in Fresno County, a wildfire in mid-June ate through thick grass, burning into oak woodlands and roaring up steep hills.

For firefighters, it appeared to be a routine event. Six engine teams, including five from Cal Fire and one from Fresno County, attacked from two sides. Firefighters carrying heavy, 300-foot hose extensions ascended the rocky terrain. They doubled back for additional hose, stretching their water lines and attempted to circle the fire before it leaped a ridge.

But, under state budget cuts, Cal Fire was battling the blaze with three firefighters per engine instead of the normal four-man crews used in the wildfire season. They couldn't get water around the fire in time. It jumped the ridge and devoured the next canyon.

The incident on what one fire captain called "a standard wildfire" stoked fear over whether staffing cuts are affecting first-strike capabilities of firefighters to stave off severe wildland events.

"I really thought we could catch it," Cal Fire Capt. Doug Freeman said. "Basically, with the fatigue factor (of using a three-man crew), we just couldn't."

Freeman summoned reinforcements as the blaze that he thought could have been kept to less than 10 acres spread to 133 acres and cost $300,000 to put out.

As California closed a gaping budget deficit this year with sweeping cuts to numerous agencies, it saved $34 million by cutting 750 seasonal Cal Fire firefighters. That means one less person per engine unit to haul thousands of feet of hose lines and share the exhausting physical rigors of battling wildfires.

In the Sacramento region, the cuts mean a total of 29 fewer Cal Fire firefighters in El Dorado and Amador counties and 44 fewer firefighters assigned to the Nevada, Yuba and Placer County region.

Cal Fire's Madera, Mariposa and Merced county region lost 37 seasonal firefighters, and Fresno, Kings and Tulare counties are operating with 50 fewer firefighters in the peak fire season.

To read the complete article, visit The Sacramento Bee - California News, Local News - Sacramento CA.