Advisory committee hears fund report: $8 million balance, new phone-surcharge revenue due this year

Peter Brown, president of the Uniform Professional Firefighters Association and chair of the Firefighter Cancer Relief Fund advisory committee, convened the committee's first official meeting and asked the state treasurer's staff to summarize the fund's condition.

"The most recent report . . . reported a balance in the fund of over $8,000,000," Deputy State Treasurer Sarah Sanders told the committee, adding that the treasurer's office recorded $336,000 in claims paid in fiscal year 2025 and that total claims over the last three years are less than $1 million.

The nut of the meeting was whether the fund, established under state statute, is solvent and whether additional revenue or insurance purchases will be needed. Committee members heard that a new recurring revenue source ' a 5-cent surcharge on certain phone lines ' is scheduled to begin Oct. 1 and is expected to bring in roughly $1.8 million to $2.2 million in the first year and $2.4 million to $3.0 million in future years, though members noted the start date may be delayed while telecom carriers implement the charge.

The treasurer's…