OFFICE OF FISCAL ANALYSIS
Legislative Office Building, Room 5200
Hartford, CT 06106 (860) 240-0200
http://www.cga.ct.gov/ofa
sSB-313
AN ACT CONCERNING ADOPTION OF THE
RECOMMENDATIONS OF THE TASK FORCE TO STUDY CANCER
RELIEF BENEFITS FOR FIREFIGHTERS.
Primary Analyst: CW 4/6/22
Contributing Analyst(s): DD, LD, CG, RJW
OFA Fiscal Note
State Impact:
Agency Affected Fund-Effect FY 23 $ FY 24 $
Firefighters Cancer Relief
Account
GF -
Appropriation
1.2 million None
Various State Agencies GF - Potential
Cost
See Below See Below
Note: GF=General Fund
Municipal Impact:
Municipalities Effect FY 23 $ FY 24 $
Various Municipalities STATE
MANDATE
1
- Potential
Cost
See Below See Below
Explanation
The bill, which makes a number of changes related to firefighters and
workers' compensation, results in the following fiscal impacts:
Section 1 requires fire departments to ensure that each firefighter is
equipped with at least two sets of turnout gear. Municipalities with
paid fire departments will incur costs associated with providing this
1
State mandate is defined in Sec. 2-32b(2) of the Connecticut General Statutes, "state
mandate" means any state initiated constitutional, statutory or executive action that
requires a local government to establish, expand or modify its activities in such a way
as to necessitate additional expenditures from local revenues. 2022SB-00313-R000367-FN.DOCX Page 2 of 3
equipment if they do not already do so. Costs will vary based on the
number of professional firefighters in each department; the gear
typically costs about $3,000 per set.
Section 2 (1) establishes a rebuttable presumption that a paid or
volunteer firefighter diagnosed with cancer got the disease in the course
of employment due to exposures specific to duties performed as a
firefighter and (2) makes the illness covered under workers’
compensation law. This results in a potential cost to various state
agencies and municipalities to the extent that additional employee
claims are filed and these employees meet the other conditions of the
bill.
Section 3 requires the Workers’ Compensation Commission (WCC)
to (a) maintain a record of all firefighters’ workers’ compensation claims
made due to a cancer diagnosis and (b) report a summary of the records
to the Labor Committee each year, which results in no fiscal impact
because the agency already has the staffing and expertise to do so.
Sections 4 & 10 make firefighters eligible for benefits from the
existing firefighters cancer relief program (or any other wage
replacement program) while also receiving workers’ compensation
benefits for a work-related cancer diagnosis, and appropriate $1.2
million to the firefighter cancer relief account in FY 23 for this purpose.
Section 5 makes surviving spouses or other dependents eligible to
continue to receive accident, health, or life insurance while they are
eligible for, or receiving, workers’ compensation benefits. This results
in a potential cost of an indeterminate amount to various state agencies
and municipalities to the extent that the employer offers such insurance,
the claimant is eligible for or granted workers’ compensation benefits,
and the claimant has a surviving spouse and/or dependents.
Section 6 requires the Comptroller to conduct a feasibility study on
providing pension benefits to firefighters in circumstances when the
required pension service years are not met due to early retirement
resulting from a qualifying cancer diagnosis, which results in no fiscal 2022SB-00313-R000367-FN.DOCX Page 3 of 3
impact because the agency already has the staffing and expertise to do
so.
Sections 7 through 9 clarify that volunteer fire departments and
volunteer ambulance companies fall within the state's Occupational
Safety and Health Act (Conn-OSHA), unless it is demonstrated that they
are under federal OSHA jurisdiction. This does not result in any fiscal
impact as the Department of Labor has historically considered such
entities within its jurisdiction.
2
The Out Years
The annualized ongoing fiscal impact identified above would
continue into the future subject to inflation.
2
From FY 18 through FY 22 year-to-date, these entities have paid between $800 and
$10,000 annually in OSHA penalties.