By Dan Nienaber
Free Press Staff Writer
MANKATO — Firefighters throughout the state are continuing their effort to douse a proposal that would help balance the state budget with money that’s currently dedicated to firefighter training.
Since 2006, home and business owners in Minnesota have been paying a surcharge on insurance premiums. The surcharge is less than one percent and amounts to roughly $5 per year for the average homeowner, but it adds up to millions of dollars annually that had been dedicated to the state’s Fire Safety Account.
When the account was created, with approval from Gov. Tim Pawlenty, the money was earmarked for firefighter training, regional hazardous materials teams and the State Fire Marshal’s office. Pawlenty is now proposing to use $10 million from the fund to help balance the budget.
Nyle Zikmund, who serves as fire chief for three Twin Cities suburbs, has been traveling the state in an effort to make homeowners aware of the proposal. Zikmund, who also is chairman of a legislative committee within the Minnesota Fire Chiefs Association, said the proposal amounts to a new tax for homeowners.
He said he’s also concerned that, on top of training cuts already being made due to massive reductions in state aid to cities, the cuts are going to make firefighting more dangerous. Not giving firefighters the training they need could put their lives, as well as the lives of fire victims, at risk, Zikmund said.
“As a fire chief, I’m worried about liability, and I’m worried about my firefighters’ safety,” he said.
In Mankato, the Fire Safety Fund is used to cover a portion of the training cost for new volunteer recruits, said Jay Kopischke, a full-time firefighter. About $4,000 is used annually, but the department spends a total of about $12,000 for the training.
If that money is lost, money budgeted for other types of training will have to be used to cover the difference, Kopischke said.
“Our training budget has already been absolutely slashed,” he said.
South Central College hosted an annual training program over the weekend that brought about 850 firefighters to North Mankato. Many of those firefighters were likely counting on the Fire Safety Fund to help cover their tuition costs for that training, said Tim Zehnder, Fire and Safety training program manager for SCC’s Center of Business and Industry.
There are about 100 fire departments in a 14 county area around Mankato who use SCC programs for training.
“If that funding goes away, it’s going to directly affect firefighter training and our business as trainers,” Zehnder said. “I just think there’s other ways we can go about saving money.”
Zehnder has also served as a volunteer firefighter for the past 20 years. Losing the fund would be “detrimental” to volunteer fire departments in small communities because they depend on that money for a majority of their training.
Construction materials are changing all the time, so constant training is needed to teach firefighters how to deal with those new materials, Zehnder said. The same issue is created when departments acquire better equipment.
“To me, it’s the issue of firefighter safety and protecting what we’ve signed up to do,” he said. “The cuts in Local Government Aid and the fire training fund are going to hamper the lives of firefighters and residents in Minnesota.”
“You can have the biggest, fanciest fire truck in the world. But, if you’re not trained to use it, what good is it?”
