Since the early 1900’s in Minnesota there has been a fire insurance tax imposed on every property casualty policy written in Minnesota. The purpose of the tax was to fund a strong and active State Fire Marshal’s Office. Over the course of time some of the revenues generated by this tax have been rerouted to the State’s General Fund for use on other projects and simply to help balance the State’s budget. The continual reduction of the actual funds going to their original purpose has resulted in a grossly under funded State Fire Marshal’s Office.
Last year the fire service as a whole got together and proposed an new strategy that would get funds going to where there were supposed to go. For many reasons last years initiative didn’t get too far at the legislature. The fire service redoubled their efforts this Spring, Summer and Fall and have now introduced a new initiative to fix the problem long-term. The initiative is called the Fire Safety Account and will direct funds to a variety of worthwhile life safety programs. The new initiative abolishes the old tax strategy and replaces it with a more politically palatable fee structure. The fire Safety Account will be directed by the Commissioner of Public Safety with strong input from a fire service advisory committee. Funds will generally be directed to a series of important programs such as: The Fire Marshal’s Office, State Hazardous Materials Response Teams, Firefighter Training, Structural collapse Teams and funding to beef up the BCA’s ability to assist the fire service with investigations to name a few. These are all very important programs in the times we live in today.
I hope you will be able to join me in supporting this legislative effort. Contact your local legislators, and urge them to support this bill. You can review the bill for yourself by clicking here.