Back before the election, Arnold threatened the jobs of 1,700 firefighters. It’s not Arnold this time, but sheer lack of money, that is bringing into question the entire system of mutual aid in firefighting. In the wake of the Jesusita fire in Santa Barbara County, the state is supposed to reimburse fire departments for their expenses.  

With the budget crisis upon us, apparently it just isn’t working now. It took months for the Windsor (Sonoma County) FD to get their money from last year’s fire season. And the payments in the future just aren’t clear.

The payments were for help local districts gave to battle fires far from home; this year crews have already assisted in Santa Barbara to help fight the Jesusita fire. But Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has announced plans to borrow as much as 8 percent in property tax money from local governments and special districts – such as fire districts – and that will have an impact.

Rancho Adobe Fire Chief Frank Treanor said an 8 percent cut would be about $219,000 to his budget. Coupled with lower tax assessments, that could necessitate the closure of a fire house.

“How can I justify having to close a firehouse a couple times a week, or all the time, to citizen’s here and be able to send an engine company down to god knows where?” Treanor asked.

“We may not be able to play in the mutual aid arena next year,” Treanor said. (Santa Rosa Press-Democrat 5/21/09)

To say this is troublesome is an understatement, like saying the last round of San Diego fires were were just a few little campfires. If we are unable to properly route our state’s resources we are just going to end up having to bring some sort of contractors into the state. I suppose if you are trying to Shock Doctrine the state, this is just what you had in mind, but if you had in mind the wise use of taxpayers’ money, well, then not such a great idea.

This is just one more example of the penny-wise pound-foolish cuts that we’ve been seeing proposed over the last few weeks and months. Like the others, this is also a very bad idea.