Citing fluctuating disbursements, Pennsylvania Auditor General Eugene DePasquale said Wednesday that his office would review state funding for volunteer fire relief associations to ensure they are receiving appropriate aid.
"I want to make sure our volunteer firefighters are not being shortchanged by state government or any other funding source," DePasquale said in a press conference in Mechanicsburg, Pa., where two volunteer departments merged in December.
Volunteer firefighter relief associations are funded by a 2 percent tax on fire insurance premiums bought by Pennsylvania residents from out-of-state insurance companies. DePasquale's office is responsible for distributing that money to volunteer companies.
In 2013, DePasquale said the total distributed was $72.5 million, but it decreased in subsequent years to $55.3 million in 2018. However, the total jumped up to nearly $60 million for 2019, he said.
Sufficient funding is vital to departments that are dealing with plummeting membership and increased costs for equipment and training. "The cost of everything keeps going up," said DePasquale.
The ranks of volunteer firefighters in Pennsylvania peaked at about 300,000 in the 1970s, but it has dropped to about 35,000 today, said DePasquale. "We owe them a debt of gratitude for that commitment every day," he said.
Constant fundraising, frequently through fish fry events, spaghetti dinners or cookouts, could also be dissuading people from joining volunteer departments, DePasquale said. "Nobody signs up to be a volunteer firefighter because they find fundraising to be enjoyable," he said.
Volunteer companies protect two-thirds of Pennsylvania, DePasquale said, and those services save money for taxpayers who do not have to pay for professional fire departments.
Ron Trace, president of that new Mechanicsburg Volunteer Fire Department, said "costs have gone up tremendously" during his 45 years as a firefighter, especially for training and turnout gear.
More funding would be "vitally important" to volunteer departments, Trace said.
DePasquale also renewed his call for the Legislature to update the law governing volunteer fire relief associations and expanding the rules on how they can spend the state funding they receive, which he first raised in September.
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