{"id":488520,"date":"2026-10-07T23:00:07","date_gmt":"2026-10-07T23:00:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/488520\/"},"modified":"2026-10-07T23:00:07","modified_gmt":"2026-10-07T23:00:07","slug":"editorial-orange-county-fire-authority-sets-countys-finances-ablaze-orange-county-register","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/488520\/","title":{"rendered":"Editorial: Orange County Fire Authority sets county\u2019s finances ablaze \u2013 Orange County Register"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Orange County Fire Authority, which provides fire and emergency services for unincorporated county areas and 23 member cities, just approved a 25% raise<\/a> for its firefighters over the next five years. The costs will be borne by cities at a time when many are facing fiscal challenges, making the decision fiscally irresponsible.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s just the latest example of how public-employee unions pressure government agencies to continually ratchet up pay and benefits regardless of the impact on taxpayers. The problem is particularly acute when it comes to public-safety budgets. The public is understandably supportive of firefighters, but that results in the approval of contracts that require cutbacks in other services, or service \u201ccrowd out.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

Furthermore, public-safety unions generously fund local politicians\u2019 campaigns \u2014 and every ambitious elected official seeks out fire-union endorsements. \u201cMany of the board members who voted in favor of the raise received campaign funding from the county firefighters union,\u201d per the Voice of OC<\/a>. Among them is Buena Park mayor and supervisorial candidate Connor Traut, who as of this writing has benefited from $428,000 in spending by the union.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Of course, this is no one-sided affair. Voice of OC noted that the union also contributes directly to the local Democratic and Republican parties. No wonder massive raises sail through virtually uncontested.<\/p>\n

Readers should look at Transparent California<\/a>, which uses public records to reveal pay for statewide public employees. Our perusal shows 103 OCFA employees earning between $400,000 and $597,000 annually in total compensation. They receive the generous 3% at 50 pension plan that allows them to retire with 90% of their final pay at age 50.\u00a0<\/p>\n

We respect firefighters\u2019 work, but there are typically long lines for firefighter jobs given the compensation. The recruitment concerns cited by unions are largely a myth. Firefighter unions, by the way, were behind efforts to stop cities from exiting these costly contracts<\/a> by creating their own fire agencies with more reasonable pension benefits. They tout their public service, but it\u2019s all about boosting pay and reducing competition.<\/p>\n

Fortunately, Gov. Gavin Newsom recently vetoed<\/a> two bills that would have sparked a pension-increasing frenzy. Even when the state does the right thing, there\u2019s no controlling taxes and protecting services when local officials act irresponsibly.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Orange County Fire Authority, which provides fire and emergency services for unincorporated county areas and 23 member…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":488521,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[163,165,164,1965,975],"class_list":["post-488520","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-anaheim","tag-anaheim","tag-anaheim-headlines","tag-anaheim-news","tag-editorials","tag-opinion"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/488520","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=488520"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/488520\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/488521"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=488520"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=488520"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=488520"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}