In Michigan, your home address says everything about how much you spend for fire protection. In Midland, a city of 41,000, residents paid $155 per person in 2010 for their Fire Department. But in Wyoming, a West Michigan city of about 72,000, they paid less than half that, $59 per capita. Fire departments spend about $400 million […]
In some cities, it's cash that's burning
Posted inMichigan Government
Medical calls dominate fire run stats
When the dispatch call goes to a typical Michigan fire station, chances are it has nothing to do with fire. In fact, odds are about four in five it’s some kind of medical emergency. And even then, it may well turn out to be a false alarm. Not exactly the kind of sirens-blaring drama many […]
Posted inMichigan Government
Negotiating with 'heroes' no simple matter
In 2009, Ann Arbor became the poster child for critics of Michigan’s public safety binding arbitration law, as a labor settlement cost the city $1.5 million in retroactive pay raises. The judgment came as police and fire departments consumed 55 percent ofAnn Arbor’s budget and the city stared down a $2.4 million deficit. The case […]
Posted inMichigan Government
Troy's hybrid force keeps fire costs in check
Troy, an Oakland County city of 80,000, has pioneered an approach unique in Michigan for urban fire departments. Its department relies on a force of about 170 volunteers, augmented by 10 career firefighters. With six stations, it reaches 87 percent of fires within 10 minutes. Troy earns a fire protection rating of 3 from the […]
Posted inMichigan Government
Pension costs burn through city budgets
Lansing’s taxpayers were doused with some difficult news last week: The city’s pension fund for police and fire retirees could use a nearly $2 million boost from the city’s general fund. And the city’s already fighting a budget deficit. Big-city fire departments across Michigan continue to wrestle with the legacy costs of public safety pensions, […]
Posted inMichigan Government
Fighting fire better, from manpower to money
Rockford is up against same dilemma confronting communities across Michigan: Too many expenses and not enough revenue. Police, fire and public works consume about 70 percent of the budget in this city of 5,700 in northern Kent County. So why not combine all these functions into a single department? Public safety departments providing police and […]
Posted inMichigan Government
Merging fire services is tricky business
In January, the state started handing out money to local governments as incentives to consolidate public services with neighbors. Fire protection sharing figured prominently in the first round of 27 grants totaling $4.3 million. But it’s the lack of money, rather than the prospect of more, that should force more communities to look at service […]
Posted inLand O Links
Land O Links
“Mistakes are, after all, the foundations of truth, and if a man does not know what a thing is, it is at least an increase in knowledge if he knows what it is not” — Carl Jung, Swiss psychologist. * Ice in winter has positive effects, too: http://greatlakesecho.org/2012/05/15/continued-ice-loss-on-the-great-lakes-may-cause-widespread-change-in-ecosystems/ * It was suggested, in comments to […]
Posted inBusiness Watch
Not much above par on Michigan's scorecard
Gov. Rick Snyder campaigned for the state’s top elected office in 2010 with a promise to “reinvent” Michigan. The Center for Michigan’s 2012 Michigan Scorecard, compiled in partnership with Data Driven Detroit, shows there’s still plenty of reinventing to do. Although Michigan’s economy has performed a U-turn from a decade of job losses, most other […]
Posted inBusiness Watch
State's exports lift economy as they leave
One of the biggest — and largely unheralded — signs of Michigan’s economic recovery is the state’s impressive jump in exports. The 2012 Michigan Scorecard ranked exporting as “good,” up from “average” in 2010. But the state’s performance in selling Michigan-made goods around the world has improved even more since the 2012 Scorecard data was […]