I’d like to get to the bottom of many of these postings and clear up some misconceptions:
Not all taxes are voted on, they are often levied. That is almost all government bodies are given a set amount (usually set by the State Constitution) that they may collect without a vote of the people so that they can run government. This amount is often set by a formula that accounts for population and the value of the community. This, set amount was originally designed to pay for the infrastructure of government, usually based in the concepts of Life and Safety.
Some Cities, Villages, or Townships, augment their systems with other, citizen supported, taxes. The community I work in started the career path of firefighters without increasing taxes. Government has a history of misappropriating funds. Michigan, for instance, received tax money from the state know as shared revenue, which in concept was supposed to be earmarked for public safety, but had been diverted to pet projects for years. Now when the state cut this money the public safety departments got cut, but most often the pet projects remained with little if any cuts.
Professional Firefighters most often are required to hold many certificates and licenses. Today the training to become a full-time firefighter/paramedic varies widely among the different states. However, I can speak for Michigan: Firefighter 2, as outlined by the National Fire Protection Association, and the Paramedic training takes approximately 1250+ hours of training. When these classes are put together along with required “core” classes an entry level firefighter going onto a full-time paid department has obtained, as a minimum, an Associates Degree, much like what is required of a Registered Nurse. Most states only require Firefighter 1 and Medical First responder training to volunteer in their community, usually about 250 hours of training.
The Union that I belong to, The International Association of Fire Fighters’ (IAFF) does not support the idea that “Volunteers steal jobs”. The IAFF does not represent part-paid or volunteer firefighters, simply because they represent the interests and concerns of Full-time Career Firefighters. By the way, this Union is the oldest Union representing public employees and is the largest single private fund raiser for the MDA and staff burn camps for burn injury survivors in almost all of the states of the country. Many of these Career Firefighters freely donate (volunteer) their time for these causes.
I for one, like many other Career Firefighters, started out as a Part-paid (volunteer) firefighter, first to give to the community, then the job became part of my life and I sought full-time employment, to this day I still enjoy my work.
Police use Part-time members, or Reserves, to augment regular police duties. They do not do investigations, write or sign warrants, and today they seldom carry weapons.
They bottom line I suppose, is that any job that may require you to give your life and/or well being for the good of others is marvelous, no matter if you are paid or volunteer. Just my 2 cents.
