All this bill does is hurt the citizens of urban county governments. I fully support our emergency response personnel and their dedication to our safety, but this is still a job, still service to our community, and since public safety takes such a huge percentage of our city budgets, we cannot get away from having to cut all areas. With this legistlation, we would have to lay off at least twice as many safety personnel to make the same budget reduction that we would get without the legistlation. We then have fewer police and fire working the streets, reducing our safety and raising the crime rate. With fewer jobs and a failing economy, our taxes would have to go up even more to pay the retirement fees, ridiculous disability retirement rates, and now a ton more for partial pay and full benefits, with no return on investment! If you are a police or fire man, ask yourself if you would rather double the chances that you would have to be cut and live on 40% salary for a time, and if you are a citizen or employee anywhere in an urban county governing area ask if you are willing to pay more for higher crime, less safety coverage, fewer police, and fewer fire departments, while suffering the economic crisis yourself and probably having no guarantee of salary and health coverage.
Will you still be happy to pay for the police and fire personnel salaries for no coverage if you have little or no income? The answer is in the numbers, and Senate Bill 16 is not a good number.