California Professional Firefighters

Firefighters and the Federal Stimulus Plan

With the shadow of another difficult fire season looming over California, a silver lining may be shining our way, courtesy of the federal stimulus plan.

The massive American Recovery and Reinvestment Act promises at least $30 billion, and possibly as much as $80 billion in additional revenue for a range of state and local services. At least one pot of money is specifically earmarked for public safety, and a range of environmental and energy dollars could also be made available to help keep the effects of the state's fiscal meltdown at bay.

California Professional Firefighters is aggressively moving to secure sizeable portions of the stimulus money for long-unmet needs.

  • Staffing and Fire Stations -- CPF has proposed a framework that would allow fire agencies to apply for multi-year grants for staffing. Stimulus dollars for energy efficiency could be used to upgrade outdated fire stations. We believe up to $250 million could be made available for these purposes.
  • Apparatus - CPF has proposed a $32 million allocation to finance the purchase of 131 wildland firefighting engines, as proposed by the state Blue Ribbon Task Force (see AB 1128).
  • Training -- $15 million to supplement apprenticeship training through the groundbreaking labor-management partnership, the California Fire Fighter Joint Apprenticeship Committee.

CPF's legislative team is closely tracking the legislative process to insure that funding intended to bolster our critical first responder needs isn't siphoned away to other priorities.

To learn more about the stimulus money, check out the Issues and Legislation page at www.cpf.org