Wicomico County Council disagrees with County Executive on fire department funding
WICOMICO COUNTY, Md. – The Wicomico County Council is in disagreement with the office of the county executive and local firefighter’s union, centering around how much the county should budget for the Salisbury Fire Department.
“We’re hurting really bad for all of those public safety entities and to cut it is just really disheartening,” said County Executive Julie Giordano, who was frustrated at the news that the Wicomico County Council proposed cutting $600,000 from the $2 million that had been allotted to fund the Salisbury Fire Department.
Council President John Cannon pointed out that the county’s allocation for the Salisbury Fire Department has still been increasing over the past few years: “The council feels it’s a little bit more responsible, if we look at giving a 40% increase on top of last year’s 30% increase. That way we’ve almost doubled Salisbury’s funding within the last two years.”
Those who believe Salisbury’s fire department should receive the full $2 million in funding said that, with the volume of calls responded to within Salisbury’s fire districts, they have been in need of additional funding for years. Giordano said, “They were severely underfunded before, with the amount of work and calls that they do for county residents.”
Brandon Records, President of Salisbury Career Firefighters Local 4246, was also disappointed by the council’s proposal in the budget, saying, “Wicomico County for decades, longer than I know, hasn’t paid the fair share for fire and EMS services in the county portions of the Salisbury Fire districts.”
In its current form, Wicomico County funds the Salisbury Fire Department retroactively, with current budget discussions centering around payment for calls serviced in 2023. With the council’s proposal to fund roughly $1.4 million rather than the previously negotiated $2 million, Giordano used the analogy of paying for utilities to explain what she thinks the consequences could be: “Just like electric, if you get a $300 electric bill and you only pay $160, your electric is only going to stay on for so long. And that’s kind of where we are right now.”
In 2023, the Salisbury Fire Department responded to 16,314 calls, more than the other 11 volunteer companies in the county combined.
Cannon suggested that long-term investment in Wicomico County’s EMS system would ease the burden on the city: “What we’d really like to do, though, is to consider investing more in Wicomico County so that we can create an EMS system that would offset those costs for the city of Salisbury.”
Giordano said that, while investing in an expanded EMS system is worthwhile, it ultimately neglects the city’s current situation: “We are still looking at what the future of our EMT system looks like. And while I appreciate that, it has nothing to do with us funding Salisbury now.”
Council President John Cannon noted that, at this point, nothing has been finalized. He said, “The budget is fluid until June 14th.”
