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Paul Hufnagal, Michigan Professional Firefighters Union:

Good afternoon.  My name is Paul Hufnagal and I represent the Michigan Professional Firefighters Union. We have about five thousand members across the state of Michigan and they provide fire protection and EMS services-Emergency Medical Services-and first responder services for about 80% of the state.  We are very concerned about the situation here at the legislature, as the chief alluded to.  If there is a government shutdown, we lose our revenue sharing, over four hundred million dollars, plus the fire protection grant sharing. That will literally shut cities like Lansing and East Lansing down where they're going to have to lay off firefighters, reduce protection, and cause all the problems we're going to have as far as safety for the citizens, and safety for our firefighters trying to do their job.

Now, we're urging our over five thousand members to send emails to contact their representatives and senators to get something done here in Lansing.  It's vitally important, not just to the firefighters and the jobs they're trying to do, but to public safety throughout the state, to get a budget in place, to put the tax structure in place, that will support the proper public services, especially safety services in our case, for the citizens in Michigan.  This has a big impact on local government and that's where our concern is.  The impact is not only what's going to take place here in Lansing but the effects on local government.

We're real concerned about this. We don't want to see a government shut down, and we surely want to see a tax structure in place that will carry us through the future and provide safety and security for the citizens in Michigan.  We urge the legislature once again to get to work in a bipartisan fashion and get the job done and provide us with the resources and membership so we can do our jobs.