By Sam Wroblewski 630wpro.com
Former candidate for governor Ken Block will be releasing a new report Tuesday on the costs generated by Rhode Island’s fire districts. Block says there are too many districts across the state.
In Rhode Island there are nearly double the number of fire districts as there are cities and towns; Block tells WPRO’s Gene Valicenti the amount of districts and fire fighters is a huge financial burden to the state.
“It’s a gigantic problem, it’s a huge cost, it’s one of the drivers to our local taxes, and we have to pull it together and understand what we’re doing that’s wasteful and fix it,” said Block.
Block said he will unveil the full report on Tuesday, but previewed some of the results of his analysis.
“Rhode Island pays all of its fire chiefs, and there’s more than 60 of them, more than $3.5 million,” said Block.
“In the town of Lincoln alone, there are six different fire departments, they have six chiefs, [and] those chiefs take home a total salary, without beneifts, of more than $350,000.”
Block said in Rhode Island, tax payers collectively pays $330 million a year for fire protection and the state is saddled with over $930 million in unfunded fire fighter pension liability.
