After spending $287K in political donations, firefighters push again for vetoed disability bill

PROVIDENCE − Few if any political donors were more generous to Rhode Island politicos in 2022 than the firefighters.

From Jan. 1 to Dec. 31, political action committees affiliated with firefighters across the state made a total of $287,925 in donations to office-holders, candidates and their affiliated PACs.

Some of those donations went to the candidates for statewide office, including Gov. Dan McKee, all the way down to a council seat or a mayor's office.

But the majority of those donations went to state lawmakers past and present who, until Tuesday, were scheduled to hold a hearing on legislation to guarantee disability pensions — paying two-thirds pay, tax-free, for life — to firefighters with hypertension or heart conditions or a history of stroke.

Adding to the all-in-the-family atmosphere, the bill's lead sponsor, Rep. Robert Craven, expected his namesake son — Robert Craven Jr. — to present new state Treasurer James Diossa's as-yet undeclared position on the bill as Diossa's legislative director.

The hearing was postponed, however, after The Journal questioned whether the new chairman of the House Municipal Government Committee would preside: Woonsocket firefighter and state Rep. Stephen Casey, who is also a member of Woonsocket Firefighters Union Local 732.

In the wake of The Journal's inquiries, House spokesman Larry Berman said the hearing on this bill — and two others sought by the firefighters' lobby — had been postponed to allow Casey, "out of an abundance of caution," to seek an advisory opinion from the state Ethics Commission on whether he may preside over the hearing and take part.

In 2017, the R.I. Ethics Commission cleared Casey to debate and vote on continuing-contract legislation, but cautioned him about taking a role in the discussion of legislation "that impacts a smaller subclass of firefighters, or that impacts him individually or differently than other firefighters."

More:Lobbying RI's part-time legislators is big business. Here's how big it was in 2022.

Firefighters have been pushing for this bill for decades

The firefighters' push goes back decades, to 1992, if not earlier. At that time, there were already a number of police and firefighters outside the state retirement system who had contracts that gave the presumption of an on-the-job injury to heart conditions, hypertension and the like.

Under such contracts, a firefighter who suffered a heart attack was eligible for a full disability pension, regardless of whether it struck in the middle of a three-alarm fire or while the firefighter was watching TV on the couch at home.

The firefighters scored a short-lived victory in 2017, but then-Gov. Gina Raimondo vetoed that year's legislation to automatically qualify firefighters with heart conditions for disability pensions.

The veto followed then-state Treasurer Seth Magaziner’s warnings that it would heap a potential $2.3 million to $2.8 million in additional costs on the cities and towns, and effectively prohibit the state’s pension administrators from even questioning whether a heart condition was work-related.

In her veto message to lawmakers, Raimondo said: “Firefighters provide an enormously important public service to the people of Rhode Island, often at significant risk to their own personal health and safety.

"Reflecting the clear risk inherent in this work, firefighters are currently able to receive an accidental disability pension for these conditions if the conditions are directly work-related and there is sufficient evidence to justify the benefit."

More:Governor vetoes automatic disability pension bill for firefighters with heart conditions

But this legislation would, in effect, "create a significant new unfunded local pension benefit that would cost millions of dollars annually in new pension obligations for cities and towns — likely resulting in simultaneous property tax increases," Raimondo said.

"For this reason, the League of Cities and Towns, the Rhode Island Public Expenditure Council, and the Rhode Island Business Coalition have all asked for my veto of this legislation — as have a dozen mayors and town managers representing communities across our state,’’ she wrote.

The Rhode Island League of Cities and Towns objected strenuously, noting that heart disease — “the leading cause of death in our country’’ is “attributable to numerous causes, including diet, exercise, smoking, family history and numerous other factors. Given the prevalence of heart disease, it is not a valid presumption that any heart disease among firefighters is necessarily work-related.”

Bill sponsor says it's unfair to make firefighters prove their health conditions are related to the job

Asked on Tuesday why he renewed the push for the bill despite all of these concerns, Craven said he is one of seven children of a 23-year Providence firefighter who, when he died at age 81 after eight heart attacks, was the last of his firefighter class of 1947 to die.

He said he knew his father's "classmates" because there was still a residency requirement to get on the fire department "so in the neighborhood [where] I grew up in Washington Park, I thought that everybody worked in the Fire Department, the Police Department or the city, because they were all city workers there.

"And I saw them through their trials and tribulations with cancer, COPD heart disease, all those debilitating diseases."

His father was lucky. He had a second 18-year career with the telephone company when he left the Fire Department.

"It's a dangerous job," Craven said of firefighting, especially in the cities where firefighters are faced with more building hazards and potential chemical exposure. And, "I think it is unfair to the firefighters to have to prove that [their medical conditions] did come from their employment, as opposed to presumptively."

What do the bills say?

The postponed agenda for the House Committee on Municipal Government & Housing included three related bills and an early-in-session vote on a bill to let Jamestown give $2,000 property tax breaks to its volunteer firefighters.

This year's version of the bill that Raimondo vetoed says: any firefighter unable to perform the job "because of ... heart disease, stroke or hypertension is presumed to have suffered an in-the-line-of duty injury/disability, unless the contrary can be proven by clear and convincing evidence."

This presumption would not apply to firefighters hired after July 1, 2023 who "had regularly or habitually used tobacco products" in the five years prior to diagnosis.

The sponsors: Reps. Robert Craven, William O'Brien, Camille Vella-Wilkinson, Thomas Noret, and Gregory Costantino.

A second bill on the agenda would provide injured-on-duty benefits to police officers and firefighters "that suffer from diagnosed post-traumatic stress injuries."

The exceptions? Injured on duty benefits "shall not be extended to a police officer or firefighter, if their post-traumatic stress injury diagnosis, arises out of any disciplinary action, work evaluation, job transfer, layoff, demotion, termination or similar adverse job actions."

A third would extend the same presumptions about cancer that apply to firefighters to EMTs.

More:Rhode Island's municipal judges are in a world of their own

Rhode Island League of Cities and Towns ready to fight the bill again

The Rhode Island League of Cities and Towns is geared up to do battle again.

"We recognize and appreciate Chairman Casey’s advocacy for public safety officials," the league's executive director, Ernest Almonte, told The Journal this week. And "the league and its members recognize the challenges that our public safety officials face every day."

"Our ultimate goal should be to ensure that our police officers and firefighters get the care they need without creating unintended consequences," he said.

For example: "It is unclear how genetic factors and natural shifts in a person’s health over time will be considered."

He questioned the potential cost of assuming any cancer is a job-related injury for an EMT.

Of the PTSD bill, Almonte said: "Rhode Island’s injured-on-duty system for municipal employees is in need of immediate reforms before any expansion is considered."

As it stands, "Rhode Island’s IOD law grants an injured or sick municipal police officer or firefighter 100% of pay and benefits while he/she is incapacitated and throughout the disability pension application process, including appeals."

"Many cities and towns pay full IOD salaries and benefits to employees for many years, while also paying overtime to cover vacant positions," he said.

This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: RI firefighters pushing legislature for new disability benefits bill