Should Michigan Legislators Support Increase in Grants to Avoid Layoffs
There is no doubt that Michigan is hurting economically and tough decisions have been made (with more to come) that truly make an impact on our service levels. Recently Flint, Ann Arbor, Pontiac, and many others have taken hits to fire department staffing levels. Levels that may jeopardize the successful outcome of a fire and could lead to the injury of civilians and firefighters.
Senators Dodd and Schumer are promoting various changes to the Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response (SAFER) that could be used to rehire laid off firefighters for up to two years. The monies would be competitively filed for under various grant programs such as the SAFER program.
What do you think is two years enough? Should the entire AFG program be reevaluated based on the current economic crisis? Should our Senator Levin and Stabenow join in with Dodd and Schumer to make sure Michigan can benifit from this?
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
How about providing payroll funding assistance to KEEP the existing personnel that are in danger of being laid off?
Ryan, great point, lets just say there is 1,000 fire departments here in Michigan and we received $500 Million in grants or funding from the federal government, that is roughly $500,000 per fire department. Not a bad bailout considering what our automotive and banking friends have received. I know that AFG typically isn’t this amount but we can hope or ask