From The Secret List:

A MUST READ (Because Your Mayor / City Manager Is Reading It)

"FIREFIGHTERS HAVE GONE FROM HEROES TO BUDGET BAIT"

Below is a LINK to an article from Governing Magazine that your Mayor, City Manager and Elected Officials are reading right now-so it's probably a good idea if we read what they are reading, to insure your local facts are presented and your elected officials are well educated about YOUR FD.

AS THE ARTICLE STATES: "The new landscape has clearly been shaped by the brutal fiscal conditions in localities. In an era of such severe economic uncertainty, high-level municipal officials -- elected and otherwise -- have not been shy about portraying firefighters as a group that has vacuumed up more than its fair share of municipal resources -- whether it's for salaries, equipment and firehouses, or for some of the most generous retirement packages offered by local governments today...."

MORE HERE:

http://www.governing.com/topics/public-workforce/firefighters-feel-squeeze-shrinking-budgets.html

--------BUT ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE COIN:

"Are Budget Cuts Leaving The Fire Department Unprepared For Emergencies"?

The following article is from Mike Daly, NY Daily News asking:

What if next time it is not a blizzard, but a terrorist attack? What if we suddenly miss those thousands of cops we have lost? What if we discover we need not fewer fire companies, but more?

MORE HERE: http://tinyurl.com/35odjcj