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“Politics is the art of the possible, the attainable — the art of the next best” Otto von Bismarck
Garry Briese, CSFC Executive Director; Chief Brad White, CSFC Vice President, Governor Jared Polis, Chief Kristy Olme, CSFC President
(Photo taken in the Governor’s Office on Thursday afternoon August 29, 2024)
Governor Polis has agreed that there is a significant gap in funding needs for our fire protection districts; that we must consider the unique circumstances of each district; that we must find new, sustainable funding sources for our fire protection districts; and recognizes that the state relies on local resources and mutual aid to meet the needs of Colorado and local resources have an important role to play in meeting the needs of the entire state with respect to fire and emergency services.
Governor Polis has committed to devoting the resources of the Office of State Planning and Budgeting (OSPB) and the Executive Branch, in collaboration with other stakeholders, to identifying sustainable, robust funding mechanisms for fire protection districts, and to presenting those solutions to CSFC no later than March 1, 2025, in time for potential legislation in the 2025 legislative session.
The report will identify recommendations for funding mechanisms for fire districts, including but not limited to additional state and local revenue sources and any other funding mechanisms deemed viable. The governor will memorialize these commitments in a signing statement for HB 24B-1001, sharing publicly his dedication to assisting us in finding and executing viable revenue solutions.
“I cannot adequately express how much of an impact our chiefs have had on this special session! Many of your Representatives talked about adequate funding for the fire service on the House floor and read the emails that you, our Chiefs, sent and many chiefs sent emails to every member of the House of Representatives & Senate! When they spoke from the ‘well’ on the House floor, they each expressed their concern for our funding issues and wanted to put those concerns 'on the record',” Chief Kristy Olme, President CSFC
Chief Olme continued, “The time our members took to contact their Representatives & Senators, to explain the impacts districts are facing, has paid dividends this session! While this special session itself was very disappointing, and we will unfortunately have our revenues reduced once again, we are hopeful that Initiatives 50 & 108 WILL actually be removed from November’s election.”
The commitment from the Governor, the Speaker, and stated by many of our legislators, is to help find a solution to our funding issues in the upcoming months. For over a decade, CSFC has been fighting for sustainable annual funding for Colorado’s FPDs. We were able to get to this point because our members used their voices and made sure they were heard.
Chief Olme enthusiastically noted, “I couldn’t be more honored and prouder to be a representative and President of CSFC than I am right now. Thank you all for your hard work to this point. This conversation is not over, so please keep spreading your message that revenues do not cover the increases in call volume, apparatus, equipment, and staffing. Your voices do matter and together we DID make a difference!”
Chief Brad White, CSFC’s Vice President noted, “This week we endured our fourth effort to reduce property taxes for local government in twelve months. Thanks for the hard work of our members, their cell calls and emails, and their time in front of a camera, an overwhelming majority of conversation at the capital this week revolved around the growing understanding of the challenges of finding & supporting annual sustaining revenue for Colorado’s fire protection districts”
Chief White continued, “While the $100M annual loss to the fire service this year is reprehensible, the fire chiefs of Colorado made it impossible to ignore. We understood going into this week that there would be “no stopping the train”, but thanks to everyone’s involvement we were able to make something out of nothing. With the commitment we've received from the Governor and the Speaker of the House along with a very significant number of individual members of the General Assembly, we will set to work in identifying sustainable funding this Fall. With the support of the Governor and our allies in the legislature, we believe we will be able to bring back significant legislation for the fire service with full support for the 2025 General Assembly which starts in January”
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