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.
As Amended by Senate "A" (LCO 6291)
Senate Calendar No.: 266
Primary Analyst: LD 5/3/22
Contributing Analyst(s): DD, CW
OFA Fiscal Note
State Impact: See Below
Municipal Impact: See Below
Explanation
Section 1 of the bill requires fire departments with a population of
more than fifty thousand to ensure that each firefighter is equipped with
at least two sets of turnout gear. Municipalities with paid fire
departments will incur costs beginning in FY 24 associated with
providing this 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.
Municipalities with a population of less than fifty thousand are
exempt from purchasing turn-out equipment for firefighters provided
they are equipped with all advanced cleaning washer and extractor
capabilities as specified in NFPA 1851. This results in a potential cost to
municipalities that have a population of less than fifty thousand if they
do not have the cleaning washer and extractor capabilities as specified
in the bill.
Section 2 of the bill (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 2022SB-00313-R01-FN.DOCX Page 2 of 3
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 of the bill 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 of the bill 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 of the bill 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 of the bill 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 impact because the agency already has the staffing and
expertise to do so.
Sections 7 through 9 of the bill 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 2022SB-00313-R01-FN.DOCX Page 3 of 3
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.
The bill also requires municipalities to contribute to the firefighters’
cancer relief account in the amount of $10 per firefighter, resulting in a
cost to municipalities with professional fire departments that will vary
based on the number of career firefighters that serve such
municipalities.
Senate "A" (1) changes the effective date of Section 1 from July 2022
to July 2023 eliminating the potential cost to municipalities in FY 23; (2)
exempts municipalities with a population of less than fifty thousand
from purchasing turn-out equipment, which results in potential savings
to certain municipalities; (3) adds provisions requiring municipalities to
contribute to the firefighters’ cancer relief account, resulting in a
potential cost to municipalities; (4) strikes sections 2, 5, and 7 to 10 and
the associated fiscal impact.
The preceding Fiscal Impact statement is prepared for the benefit of the members of the General Assembly, solely
for the purposes of information, summarization and explanation and does not represent the intent of the General
Assembly or either chamber thereof for any purpose. In general, fiscal impacts are based upon a variety of
informational sources, including the analyst’s professional knowledge. Whenever applicable, agency data is
consulted as part of the analysis, however final products do not necessarily reflect an assessment from any
specific department.