Friends and neighbors,
When firefighters and police officers are injured during the course of their work and can no longer perform their job, they become eligible for something called a duty disability benefit. This benefit is available to people who have suffered either physical injuries or mental health challenges like PTSD. It represents our promise that we will take care of people who sacrificed themselves to keep us safe.
I am a man of my word. I take that promise seriously.
Unfortunately, not everyone in the Legislature feels the same way. We recently approved a bill that breaks our commitment to folks who have existing duty disability benefits by making changes that will reduce the amount of money they receive.
Here are the changes:
- The bill requires disability recipients who are able to return to the workforce to have their disability benefit significantly reduced. (The formula is a little bit complicated, but you can read about it in the bill if you are interested.) Some of these recipients may be able to return to the workforce in some capacity, but not in their original roles.
- The bill will align income between police and fire disability recipients and active members, meaning many duty disability benefit recipients will see a reduction of their benefit.
The end result is that a lot of disabled police and firefighters will experience a reduction in benefits. I supported a common sense compromise that would grandfather in the current duty disability recipients, so these changes would take effect moving forward. Unfortunately, that amendment was rejected.
These first responders made a huge sacrifice while protecting our communities. We made a promise to them and we should keep it. Especially with a $19 billion surplus, we should have been able to develop a better solution to this complicated problem.