By Mannix Porterfield
The Register-Herald, Beckley
CHARLESTON, Va. — For some of West Virginia’s volunteer fire units, recruiting and retaining fresh legs to answer the calls is a major problem.
In other departments, the biggest obstacle is corralling enough money to buy equipment and maintain a base of operations.
Since one size doesn’t fit all, the West Virginia State Firemen’s Association is returning to the Legislature in January with a new tack in dealing with their troubles — a proposal to give the 415 or so volunteer units wider discretion in how they may spend the money the state allots them.
And there is likely going to be a push to dip into the one-tenth of 1 percent the state is paying into the teachers retirement fund and turn that over to the volunteers.
Some years ago, noted firemen’s lobbyist Sam Love, the Legislature dedicated part of the surcharge to the teachers retirement system, and if this is in turn diverted to volunteer units, it means lawmakers will have to find another $2.2 million to make up the difference.
“Teachers aren’t real upset about that, or don’t seem to be,” Love said.
“I asked them a couple of years ago to do that and they said it doesn’t bother them. I’d like to see the Legislature put that into the firemen’s fund.”
Volunteer units collect around $40,000 annually from the surcharge imposed on casualty insurance paid by homeowners in West Virginia, but there are limits as to how that money may be used.
In this year’s regular session, the House and Senate were at odds on how to rescue volunteer units from problems that threaten to put some out of existence.
A House measure would have dipped into the general revenue account for $15.5 million in liquor taxes to create a pool to pay a Length of Service Awards Program monthly stipend for firefighters on the job at least 20 years. In a Senate bill, volunteer units would have been given more leeway in the yearly allotment from the state to create the LOSAP.
“Our plan is to change the laundry list, the things they’re allowed to spend state money on, and add LOSAP and try to secure more money that goes into the fund,” Love said.
“Some departments feel they need money for equipment more than they did for length of service.”
Under a proposal the association will advance in January, each department would spend its money as it deems necessary.
“We’d also like to see an increase in the surcharge,” Love said.
West Virginia has only about a dozen paid departments, and some of them are only partially professional. This glaring statistic demonstrates the value of volunteer units, say officials who represent them.
“Volunteers cover 75 percent of West Virginia’s population,” Love said.
Sen. Ed Bowman, D-Hancock, held out for the Senate version he crafted that bore a major stipulation — no government entity would ever be liable or have any ownership of a LOSAP at any volunteer department.
Bowman’s position was fixed in his contention that LOSAP was just another name for a pension and he often warned that West Virginia couldn’t afford to get involved in another potentially unfunded liability.
Municipal police and fire pensions are in deep trouble, moving the Legislature to possibly meet in special session in November to resolve the dilemma.
Tom Miller, a veteran volunteer firefighter in Sissonville and frequent spokesman for VFDs, has said he wants the LOSAP dealt separately and not tied in any way to the fiscal ills haunting the paid departments.
“Let our issues stand on their own merits and let theirs stand the same,” he said earlier.
Miller said volunteer units are losing members daily, making it difficult to keep departments at full strength.
“We caught some opposition last year,” Love said of the House-Senate battle over LOSAP.
“Some departments said, ‘We don’t need a retirement, we have a good department. We don’t have any trouble recruiting people.’ And other departments do. This way, it will address it as to where it will be more flexible on how they spend their money. In the code section, it’s pretty much for operations now. That’s what we’re hearing from them. They want more flexibility. This will satisfy all departments.”
Copyright 2009