In addition, the Legislature and the Governor have approved the taking of $1.9 billion in property taxes from local government. While the suspension of Prop. 1A does "borrow" $1.9 billion of cities, counties and special districts' property taxes, it's important to know the following:

1. The state must repay each agency's borrowed amount by June, 2013, plus interest. Any agency may elect to wait until June, 2013, to be repaid, or;

2. May join the Leagues/California State Association of Counties JPA, California Communities, and in effect "sell" their borrowed amount (receivable) to the JPA. In turn, the JPA, once they have all of the local agencies that elect to join the JPA and their amounts of the borrow, the JPA will sell a bond for the full amount of the local agencies' borrowed property taxes. Once the bond is sold, each agency will receive its borrowed amount, which if everything goes according to schedule, will be before the first half of when the borrow occurs, expected to be in December or January. Therefore, if an agency joins the JPA, it will not be out any of its property tax revenues due to the borrow.

At the county, city and district levels, the news is not much better. Local government was already facing unprecedented reductions to public safety services as a result of revenue reductions not seen in modern history. There are very few fire jurisdictions that are not actively reducing or browning out companies with more requests for cuts forthcoming.

To this end we are working on several fronts to address this fiscal downturn. As bad as it is, CFCA is uniquely positioned as a resource and influential voice on financial policy decisions at the local and state levels.

CFCA recently hosted an Economic Summit with the California Professional Firefighters, the League of Cities Fire Chiefs, the Fire Districts and California State Firefighters Association, the SFM, EMA and the Governor's Office. This summit was to strategize how we can work together and speak with one voice as we navigate this economic crisis. Outcomes from the summit can be viewed on the CFCA website at http://www.calchiefs.org/.

As a result of the summit the fire service attendees identified three priorities for the next fiscal year; protecting existing revenues, protecting mutual aid and the established interdependency of the California Fire Service and communicating the impacts and the necessary staffing and service level requirements throughout the state.

There are a number of short, medium, and long range goals to support these priorities. These goals range from 50%+1 threshold for public safety taxes and assessments to a statewide standards of coverage model that would help identify concentration and distribution of mutual aid resources and what impacts budget reductions and system draw down impacts.

The California Fire Chiefs Association and the California Professional Firefighters worked diligently together on the "Emergency Response Initiative" (ERI) which would have placed an approximately $45 charge on all fire insurance policies to fund $350 million dollars for state and local fire services. Unfortunately, this initiative did not make it through the budget negotiation process, but we do have an agreed upon framework for the future.

So we are left asking the question, how can we best assist each other during this difficult time?

First, we must not lose focus, and then we must remain focused on continuing to send our message. It is more essential than ever that we utilize all resources at our disposal to keep the public and government informed on the important and vital work performed by the men and women of the California Fire Service.

All levels of government must understand what is at risk if they continue to cut vital fire service resources. The consequences of significantly damaging the California Fire Service Mutual Aid System through cuts and funding reductions are unacceptable. We must all do our part to support and participate in the safety net that is the fine line between incident mitigation and tragedy.

We must work collectively to ensure all fire departments have a strategic business plan. If we fail to plan, we plan to fail. This is not a time or crisis we will just ride out without a plan. It is time for all agencies to look at new revenue opportunities and partnerships to save money and produce new dollars.

Some of the innovative ideas that are beginning to take hold are enterprise funds and innovative fee for service programs. One example is a department with fire apparatus maintenance capabilities expanding maintenance facility services to other fire agencies at lower than market costs but at a level that will offset or cover costs for the facility and offset the hosting agency's fire maintenance costs. It is time to seek out innovation!

Now is the time to take a serious look at opportunities for regional cooperation, consolidations and other cooperative partnerships. There are several models throughout the state that have successfully resulted in increased economies of scale and savings for participating jurisdictions, while at the same time preserving and enhancing core service capabilities.

Non-traditional revenue sources are becoming more important than ever. CFCA is actively engaged with the Western Fire Chiefs Association and the IAFC to ensure state and federal fire based grant funding is preserved and enhance. Insurance billing for responses, public private partnerships, and value added services can provide business and local communities with additional untapped sources of revenue and efficiencies. All agencies should be pursuing multiple sources of alternative revenues.

Lastly, we need to take a hard look at what part we need to play as individuals and as an industry to meet the financial challenges that lie ahead. We need to be part of the solution and provide cost savings and new efficiencies and value to the communities we serve. There is no one thing that is going to make this go away; it's going to have to be a combination of savings, new revenue and increased efficiencies.

I understand it can sometimes be difficult to hear the message of contraction and savings while we are encouraging expansion and innovation in other areas, but they are complimentary and interdependent of each other. The California Fire Service strategy to meet these unprecedented economic challenges must rely extensively on growth and new opportunity as well as existing savings to get us through these difficult times.

While most of us have never seen anything like the current economic downturn, let's not forget the opportunities this crisis is bringing to us. We are seeing opportunities that would not be in front of us if not for this crisis. Let's not lose them in the fog of these challenges! We have the ability to endure this downturn and come out stronger than when we went in. Stay engaged and stay safe!!

Sheldon