While Fires Rage, Republicans Want To Cut Firefighting Funds

If any more evidence was needed to show the ridiculous nature of the budget cuts being proposed by the Republican-controlled Texas legislature, this could be it. As you may know, the past couple of weeks has seen wildfires raging across large sections of the state (see above map for currently affected areas). And these are just the latest fires -- a few weeks ago the Panhandle area was also hit by fires and more than 50 homes were burned down near Amarillo.

The reason these fires have been so devastating can be traced to the incredibly dry conditions in the state and high winds -- two conditions that are not uncommon in Texas in most years.
And since drought conditions and windy days are pretty commonplace, one would expect the legislature to adequately fund fire prevention and firefighting measures throughout the state -- especially in rural areas where these fires can quickly cover large areas. Sadly, that is not the case.

In fact, while these fires are still raging, both houses of the state legislature have proposed budgets that would cut funds for the firefighting efforts by the Texas Forest Service (TFS) by nearly 40%. TFS currently has a budget for this of $42 million. The legislature wants to cut that budget down to only $25.8 million (61.4% of the current budget).

Texas relies heavily on volunteer fire departments to fight fires in rural areas, and lacking their own revenue sources, these volunteer departments rely heavily on state funds for new equipment purchases and fire prevention programs. The cuts to the TFS would eliminate much of the funding for this, leaving these departments ill-equipped and unprepared to fight the rural fires. And when these volunteer departments can handle the job, the TFS must ask for firefighting help from other states -- which costs four times as much money and delays the firefighting effort.

These cuts seem even more insane when compared to the budget deficit. Texas currently faces a budget deficit of about $27 billion for the next biennium (and the legislature is refusing to raise taxes or broaden the sales tax base). But the cuts to the firefighting efforts of TFS would amount to only 0.0006% of that budget deficit -- just a tiny drop in a large bucket. Considering the disastrous consequences the cuts will probably have, this legislative move just makes no sense at all.

But this is the kind of thing that happens when a political party puts teabagger politics ahead of common sense budgeting.