VCC Summer-Fall 2021

V irginia C apitol C onnections , S ummer /F all 2021 21 V IRGINIA D EPARTMENT OF S MALL B USINESS AND S UPPLIER D IVERSITY M ore than 97% of Virginia’s businesses are small . We are your economic development agency , helping you grow and prosper through increased revenue and job creation . What we offer… • Virginia Small Business Financing Authority providing access to capital; • Business Development and Outreach providing education and outreach to assist small businesses with strategic growth and development; • Certifications to enhance procurement opportunities for SWaM and DBE qualified businesses. For further information about services offered, please visit us at www.sbsd.virginia.gov or call (804) 786-6585 Testimony Sees Support for Fire and EMS By CHIEF WALTER T. BAILEY Governor Ralph Northam & Honorable Members of the Virginia General Assembly, I just read with a great deal of interest the budget proposal to give Virginia Law Enforcement Officers up to a $5000 bonus for hazard pay for dealing with Covid-19. While I adamantly support my brothers in blue, what about Fire & EMS? When someone in Virginia calls 911 due to Covid-19 issues, who answers the call? Well, you obviously don’t know. It’s the roughly 400 rescue squads and over 700 Fire Departments in the Commonwealth of Virginia that answer the calls. You also probably don’t know that almost 70% of us volunteer. That’s right we get NO PAY! We also get very little support from you. Virginia’s Public Safety budget exceeds $5 billion dollars but not $1 of that goes to us. The ONLY funding we get from you is from 2 special funds. The first source of funding is about $45 million from part of the $6 for life, from vehicle registrations. The second source of funding is a 1% surcharge on certain lines of insurance that also generates another $40 million. Now you do the math it amounts to about 1.7 % of public safety funding goes to the Fire and EMS Agencies. If I were in your shoes, I would be so embarrassed I couldn’t show my face in public! Each and every year we beg and we plead for the necessary funds to accomplish our life saving mission only to fall on deaf ears. If you were to do the research, you would find according to the US Department of Transportation Firefighters and EMS Personnel are 80 times more likely to save your life. Again, I’m in full support of my law enforcement brothers but they save lives by their presence not hands on EMS procedures. Think about this: how often do you dial 911 because your child is sick, your mother is having a stroke, your dad is having a heart attack, someone has fallen, there is a fire, and the list goes on. Because of the remarkable job our law enforcement officers do, few ever call 911 because you fear for your life but virtually everyone calls 911 for fire and medical emergencies. Over and over, I hear from you or the General Assembly about something you are doing for Virginia’s First Responders or Public Safety only to find out it’s for law enforcement. Please don’t forget us, Public Safety is made of 3 components, not just one, Police, Fire &EMS. PLEASE help us help our citizens! Please listen to our calls for help, if you don’t one day soon there may be no one to answer the call. Many areas of Virginia are struggling with staffing issues both volunteer and paid. If you choose to continue to ignore our pleas the police agencies may be overwhelmed transporting the sick and injured to area hospitals. In the past, I have heard “but this is a local issue”. Now I have to ask: isn’t the local treasurer, isn’t the commissioner of revenue, isn’t the sheriff, and aren’t the schools a local issue?What makes these NOT a local issue, yet we are? Fire and EMS are the only agencies across the state that know no borders. Every day, our agencies are answering calls across jurisdictional lines.We take care of the local people as well as anyone that travels through our area. Think about this, you and your family travel throughoutVirginia on a regular basis. Don’t you want the peace of mind knowing that you have ensured we have the resources to answer every call, whether it is your family, a fellow Virginian, or anyone traveling through our great commonwealth. For a start would you please consider giving us just 1% of the federal stimulus money. I can guarantee it will save lives. Chief Walter T. Bailey has been with the Phenix Volunteer Fire Department since 1974 and has served as chief for the last 38 years. He retired in November 2012 from the Lynchburg Fire Department as Deputy Chief of Operations after 32 years. He serves on numerous fire and EMS committees around the state. V