KC firefighters win big when they lose their jobs
Yael T. AbouhalkahSo much for KC’s attempt to shed lots of costs by getting rid of a few firefighters.
The new incentive plan whisked through the City Council, presumably later today, will give firefighters an average of almost two years worth of their salary to leave their jobs.
As The Star reported, firefighters eligible to retire will get 100 percent of the value of their sick leave when they say goodbye to the city.
The average pay out: $134,317, or about double what they would have been entitled to under the current city policy.
The total cost to taxpayers could approach $4 million.
That’s more than half the $7 million or so that the city was supposed to save by getting rid of the salaries and benefits, along with other costs, by cutting the Fire Department budget by less than 2 percent earlier this year.
So taxpayers won’t save the full $7 million this year, or anything close to it. And if the Fire Department succeeds in getting more people back on the payroll in the next few years, the savings could evaporate.
Council members have vowed that won’t happen.
But do you want to bet against the fire union?
Domenic Serrone
Kansas City
12 months agoHey what a surprise. I am still trying to get to the bottom of the personal vendetta you have against firefighters or apparently public safety in general. On the front page of the Star we have a story about a new massive TIF project for Cordish. The city, which is already dishing out 15 million a year and rising in welfare for P&L, is handing over another 8 million is cash to Cordish. However, whats on your mind as usual? The firefighters!
Phil Cardarella
12 months agoMaybe it is difficult for a guy like Yael, who (like me) sits on his duff in an air conditioned office, lifting nothing heavier than a coffee cup and risking no injury greater than a paper cut, to understand the toll that firefighting and police work takes on the minds and bodies.
Like Bush & Chaney — draft-dodgers who thought nothing of sending troops to Iraq. 4500 come home in bodybags, but, hey, just don’t photograph the coffins.
As I have said before, there is some irony to the fact that if The Star caught fire, these guys would risk their own lives to carry Yael’s behind out.