Fire Department Budgets and Fiscal Responsibility

As budgets for many fire departments across the country are pinched, many departments are finding ways to do more with less.

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Firechief.com talks about some of the fiscal changes and challenges facing departments.

Fire service public budgeting

The first step in a discussion on fiscal constraints is to understand the modern public fire safety department’s budget. As public safety is a labor-intensive service model, typically, more than 90 percent of the budget is accounted for by personnel costs. An additional 5-7 percent is usually assigned to fixed costs for items such as apparatus parts and repairs, fuel, hose, equipment, station supplies and station maintenance. Ultimately, there is typically less than 5 percent discretionary spending capacity that frequently covers unexpected expenses.

Therefore, incremental cuts of only a percent or two can have a significant impact on a department’s ability to maintain services, because discretionary spending is so limited. In other words, there may not be sufficient cushion to insulate adjustments without impacting personnel and/or service delivery.

Read the rest of the article here

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