Excise Tax Fight

January 11, 2010 -- The core political principle of this union is we support those who support us. If you make promises to us, we will hold you accountable.

We held President Bush accountable when he made decisions that had a negative impact on our members' jobs and lives. We will do the same with this president and any future president.

Throughout the debate on health care reform, even before the proposed excise tax on so-called high cost health plans was proposed, our union has made it clear to Congress and President Obama that our goal is reducing health care costs while preserving the benefits our members already have without piling more taxes on the backs of hardworking Americans.

In 2008, then-candidate Obama promised three things. First, he would not raise taxes on folks making less than $250,000 a year. Second, he vowed not to tax your health insurance benefits. Third, he promised that under his health reform plan that people would be able to keep their existing coverage.

Now the administration is supporting a misguided excise tax on the premiums of some health plans that is in the bill passed by the Senate. This excise tax will affect many of the health plans covering our members. The Senate bill will either impose a tax on health care premiums provided to thousands of America's fire fighters, or to avoid the tax those benefits will be slashed.

I want to make sure every leader and member in this union knows the truth, which is that under this bill every special interest seemed to get something good – the insurance companies, the doctors, the drug companies all get something.

But, in the Senate bill, many of our members who have sacrificed for years to build solid health plans to protect their families will get screwed.
The deal isn't done, yet. The health care reform bill passed by the U.S. House of Representatives does not contain this unacceptable tax and the leadership in the House, to date, is standing strong with us -- with 190 members of the Democratic Caucus signing a letter opposing the excise tax.

We applaud our House allies for their courage in waging this battle. And your union is continuing to fight to keep the excise tax out of the final bill.

We have made it clear to every senator and representative on Capitol Hill and to the president that we are fully and completely opposed to this tax and we will not compromise on it.

Rest assured that we are prepared to hold every elected official accountable on this issue, including the president.
I will update you again soon on the progress of this bill.

FPPA Vote Update

A motion was made at the September 16, 2009 Union meeting for Local 1290 to take a position on moving our pension.  The main focus of the motion was the membership at the meeting wanted Local 1290 to support moving our pension to the Fire and Police Pension Association.  A committee was formed to gather information and options available from the FPPA and disseminate this information to our members.  Informational presentations were given by the FPPA to the membership on October 12 & 13, 2009.  The FPPA power point presentation was posted on our web site for those not able to attend the meetings.  A vote of the general membership was taken on October 21, 22, & 23, 2009.  The results are:  90% of the membership wants to move our pension to the FPPA.

Local 1290’s position is to support moving our pension to the FPPA. 

Randy

Click Here to View the FPPA  Presentation!!

Attention Members,

       The nomination period for positions on the Executive Board have offically closed. Only one individual was nominated and accepted the nomination for the each open position. This means that each individual has won by acclamation. Therefore, Randy Rester remains the the president. The A-Shift trustee is Mike Sanchez. The B-Shift Trustee is Marty Jepkes. Grant Carlson chose not to run again for the position of C-Shift Trustee. Therefore, his tenure will end on Dec. 31, 2009. The union would like to thank Grant for all of the work that he put in for the membership and we wish him the best of luck. The individual who was nominated for c-shift has not been able to be contacted yet. Therefore, once we contact them and find out whether or not they will accept the position we will notify the union members. These are all two year positions.

      If you have any questions please contact any current E-Board member.