By BRIAN PORTER | Rocky Mountain Voice
When there’s an emergency — a home break-in, fire or heart attack — Coloradans depend upon emergency responders from the far stretches of the Eastern Plains to the Western Slope and places in between to be there.
Advance Colorado is asking voters this November to be there for emergency responders. Election Day is Nov. 5.
“Let’s take care of our first responders who take care of us, and make sure their families get a $1 million death benefit,” said Advance Colorado Executive Vice President Kristi Burton Brown on Monday in a Twitter/X post.
Prop 130 gives a $1,000,000 death benefit to the families of first responders who die in the line of duty. This includes police officers, firefighters, & EMTs.
— Kristi Burton Brown (@KBBColorado) September 23, 2024
We need to protect the families of those who protect us. Prop 130 gives us a way to do it w/out raising taxes. Yes on… pic.twitter.com/cQ0DDu7srE
Advance Colorado is the organization that placed Prop. 130 on the ballot, a measure that would direct $350 million from the state to assist with recruitment, training and retention of law enforcement. In her Twitter/X post Monday, though, Burton Brown focused on the death benefit element of the proposition.
When an emergency responder is killed in the line of duty in Colorado, “they receive their pension and about 70% of their salaries,” Burton Brown said.
She is asking voters to consider the low pay rate of many emergency responders across Colorado, and whether the pension and 70% of pay would be enough to support their families.
“Have you looked at the average salary for a police officer here in the state of Colorado?,” Burton Brown asked. “That’s simply not enough to make sure their families are provided for.”
A posting on the job website Indeed indicates a police officer in Boulder can make $95,157 annually, but in Burlington on the far Eastern Plains an officer can expect to be paid $45,596, according to Indeed. In Rifle on the Western Slope, an officer can expect to be paid $54,015. Pay for officers varies greatly from the Front Range to rural areas of the state.
The $1 million death benefit would pay families of fallen emergency responders at least 10 years, in most cases, of what the responder would have earned annually.
“Right now, their families simply don’t get enough, if they die keeping the rest of us safe,” Burton Brown said in the Twitter/X video.
The National Law Enforcement Officers’ Memorial Fund reports 24,067 officers have died or been killed in the line of duty since the first in 1786. An all-time high of 660 officer deaths were reported in 2021, with 118 reported last year. The most common causes for law enforcement officer deaths are shootings, job-related illnesses and crashes.
The Blue Book detail on a “Yes” vote for Prop. 130 indicates: “A yes vote on Proposition 130 directs the state to provide $350 million in additional funding to local law enforcement agencies to improve officer recruitment and retention, and requires the state to provide a one-time $1 million death benefit to the family of each state and local law enforcement officer killed in the line of duty.”
Burton Brown notes the benefit extends beyond police to firefighters and EMTs. She also notes passage of Prop. 130 would fund both the death benefit and law enforcement without raising tax.
The Blue Book indicated a “No” vote would “continue current levels of funding for local law enforcement agencies, and families of law enforcement officers killed in the line of duty will continue to receive existing benefits provided by current law.”