Posted on 09/07/2011 8:16:21 AM PDT by The Bronze Titan
According to KVUE-TV, the state of Texas, under Gov. Rick Perry, cut state funding for the volunteer fire departments that protect most of the state from wildfires. Firefighters have actually been dipping into their own pockets to fight fires.
Volunteer departments that were already facing financial strain had their funding cut from $30 million to $7 million. There are 879 volunteer fire departments in Texas; 114 are paid fire departments, while 187 departments are a combination of volunteer and paid.
At a press conference Monday, Perry promised to seek federal disaster relief and said that FEMA would be in the state by Wednesday.
While the Texas governor has been highly critical of FEMA in the past, he dodged questions from CBS’ Erica Hill on Tuesday's 'Early Show,' insisting that now was not the time to worry about reforming the agency.
Perry said: “The issue is taking care of these people right now. We can work our way through any conversations about how to make agencies more efficient, how to make Department of Defense equipment, for instance, more available. There are a lot of issues we can talk about, but the fact of the matter is now is not the time to be trying to work out the details of how to make these agencies more efficient. Let’s get people out of harm’s way.”
It's not "desperate". If your job performance record shows that you failed to have sufficient resources, and later demonstrates that you made the "wrong" decision, then you you are "stuck with the bill", good or bad!
A person's going out on a job interview, and we're supposed to review is job record for running his store. Now the store catches fire, and guess what happened to the fire fighting capability?
And the anti-Perry trolls say he does’nt cut government spending!
Which is it trolls?
Let the market rule. I’m sure some private business will step up to put out the wildfires, and bill the citizens of Texas accordingly.
Yeah. You sure know a lot about 'volunteer' EMT and Fire response capability. Sorta like low priority "stuff".
Also, if 879 fire departments were sharing 30 million dollars in the past, that means on average they were getting only 34,000 a year from the state.
That’s not enough to pay for even one full time salary or one truck or even one squad van.
The huge bulk of their money was coming locally.
Some of you people are starting to sound downright embarrassing. Your ideological bent is blinding you, it's nauseating.
Only more government funding could have saved Texas from the wildfires! We actually have idiots making the same arguments for bigger government that liberals make.
Is there any evidence that fires were a result of lack of resources or slow response time from firefighters? Not that I have seen. Dry conditions and winds are the problem.
Some of the nonsense being posted about Perry, one would think one is at the Huffington Post.
“He hangs out with strippers and prostitues”
Then I post “Jesus hung out with thieves and slut and liars.” then an APT (anti-Perry-troll) posts that Grunthor compares Perry to Jesus Christ.
Because context means NOTHING to these people.
Yes, just like hospital districts that get local tax dollars for their budgets.
Do the wildfires know that? I'm guessing they don't.
So essentially, he did something that, had TX not been currently having wildfires, most FReepers would have thought was a good thing instead?
“We actually have idiots making the same arguments for bigger government that liberals make.”
The funny thing is that by the end of the day, the same people that bitch about Perry not cutting government enough, will be saying that he cut VFD state funding too much.
And they will never recognize their own hypocrisy.
He could have funded them 200% - but it wouldn’t have made a single bit of difference when faced with fire conditions of this magnitude.
“Some of you people are starting to sound downright embarrassing. Your ideological bent is blinding you, it’s nauseating.”
How hard is it to post and look in the mirror at the same time?
To show the world the "PHONY" Perry! If you don't like it, too bad. It's a campaign. It's called "vetting". Truth hurts. Any factual errors, let me know!
Contract Dispute Grounds Firefighting Planes...
Nearly half of the federal government’s firefighting air tankers are siting idle at a California airport, grounded by the Obama administration in a contract dispute just weeks before wildfires swept through Texas killing a mother and her child, and destroying 100,000 acres.
The massive blazes forced Texas Gov. and Republican presidential hopeful Rick Perry to abruptly call off a campaign appearance in South Carolina earlier this week to respond to the crisis, and may force him to cancel his first debate appearance Wednesday night.
The U.S. Forest Service terminated the contract with Aero Union; five weeks ago to operate seven P-3 Orions that are critical to the agency’s firefighting mission, leaving the federal government with 11 tankers under contract to help battle more than 50 large uncontained wildfires now burning nationwide.
That’s down from 40 tankers used by the Forest Service just a decade ago, according to Rep. Dan Lungren (R.-Calif.), chairman of the House Committee on Administration, who is challenging the decision to dismiss the largest provider of heavy air-tanker support to the federal government.
“We were certified to fly all season, but they just terminated us and threw 60 people out of work and left the country vulnerable to fires, as you can see right now in Texas,” said Britt Gourley, CEO for Aero Union.
http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=46009
And Why do you say so?
That’s not enough to pay for even one full time salary or one truck or even one squad van.
The huge bulk of their money was coming locally.
Oh come on, you're ruining it for BT. It's so much more fun when people don't start thinking more deeply than the headline.
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