Morning Lineup – November 15

On Friday we posted a video report (HERE) about how Massachusetts is now charging a large sum of money just to take the statewide firefighter entrance examination. The story said that they are charging $200 for applicants to take the test. But one of our readers who is signed up for the next testing, tells us in a Comment that the cost is even higher. The state has added on a $50 “fee” for some innocuous reason, which jacks the cost up by another 25%. Our correspondent adds that when he took the test four years ago, the cost was $75 at that time.

This really bothers me. First of all, I have never heard of anybody charging people to apply for a job with the government. I can suppose that there will be the occasional $5 fee for some basic administrative cost, but even that is rare. But for Massachusetts to levy such a burdensome cost on people, many of whom are currently out of work, is just unconscionable. At the very least, the fee should be waived for anyone who is on the existing list that is expiring. It exposes the state’s finances as being in such a mess that they are stooping to trying to balance the budget on the backs of their own unemployed people.

For the Governor, the beauty of this scheme is that this effective tax can be implemented without getting permission from the public through their legislators. Probably by using some convenient wording that allows the state to charge an unspecified amount for “administrative costs”, they can tack on these exhorbitant fees without going through that unpleasant matter of passing a law. No doubt this is not the only agency where they are doing this stunt.

This is nothing more than a despicable and desperate deception being foisted on an unsuspecting populace. Shame on you, Governor Patrick.

Update:
The state is using the same confiscatory tactics against firefighters already on the job by charging similar fees for promotional examinations. Read the Comments section.

Now let’s get this equipment checked out. I’ll see how the Sunday breakfast is going and start a fresh pot of coffee. We’ll meet later in the day room.

door shine

Also on FireGeezer…

Morning Lineup – November 16 – November 16, 2009

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DaGonz

The cost for a promotional exam is also $250, and the worst part is.. they change the textbook requirements every year! They also pull obscure laws from the Fire Prevention Regulations (aka the 527 CMRs) and expect someone to memorize them. (the CMR book is about 5 inches thick!)

My estimate of my expenses in taking these exams, buying the books and attending promotional school over my 29 years on the job comes to about $4K. There were 10 different textbooks for the last Deputy Chief's exam I took. One of them I had to buy, at a cost of $85.

They asked TWO questions out of this book, and the questions was based on illustrations and sidebars, not the text. By the way, the textbook was a business psychology textbook that has zero, zilch, nada, nothing to do with the fire service and was written to be used in a group discussion format.

The Human Resources Division of the Department of Personnel Administration hires "educators" with absolutely no knowledge of the fire service to write the questions for the exam. Proof of this lunacy is when they write a question that has no possible answer.

The exam is getting away from what is needed to be known about fireground operations and becoming a guide to see how well a person can memorize useless bullscat... and frankly, it is pissing me off, as well as thousands of other firefighters having to deal with it.