California Professional Firefighters

Assembly Bill 2253, the William Dallas Jones Memorial Cancer Presumption Act of 2010, has made some major strides in the past week. The bill was removed from Assembly fiscal committee’s suspense file and yesterday, was approved by the full Assembly with significant bi-partisan support in a vote of 66-4. This CPF-sponsored legislation would protect firefighters' cancer presumption for up to 10 years after retirement.

A ballot measure that could have cut new employee retirement by as much as 50% and more will not be on the ballot this November. The proposal, which would have imposed punitive new restrictions on retirement, health care and collective bargaining, was withdrawn after no deep pocket stepped forward to bankroll the signature gathering campaign.

The following is a list of bills that CPF opposes, as of April 19, 2010

This past Sunday marked Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s bill-signing deadline for 2009. Among the bills approved was CPF legislation -- five years in the making -- that won firefighters and many other injured workers the right to see their own doctor when injured on the job. 

Every year, billions of dollars in state tax money flows directly from the state to local governments to support essential services, including police and fire. Thanks to the state budget shortfall, and the politics at the Capitol, local government's piece of the pie is about to get a lot smaller.

Despite our current economic crisis, California's endangered mutual aid system can be saved, through passage of the Emergency Response Initiative (ERI). This is the message that CPF President Lou Paulson and California Fire Chiefs Association President Sheldon Gilbert hammered home this week at the Joint Legislative Committee on Emergency Management hearing in San Diego.

Despite a furious last-minute lobbying effort and a direct telephone pitch from firefighters across the state, the California Legislature adjourned early Saturday without approving desperately needed first responder legislation. But a unified California fire service is vowing to keep working to pass the Emergency Response Initiative, which would pump hundreds of millions into local and state fire protection services.

The California Legislature and Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger have ended a months-long budget standoff, capped with an all night legislative session, with the approval of nearly an $85 billion spending plan for California - over 18 percent lower than last year's budget. For first responders, the news is mostly bad, but there are slivers of good news mixed in.