Stop Private Equity from Profiting while Our Communities Burn

This week's video

Friends,

Private equity firms are buying up all sorts of things that fire departments rely on — and jacking up their prices.

This is particularly harmful to volunteer fire departments, which make up about 85 percent of fire departments in the country and operate on shoestring budgets.

Even modest price increases on software can limit a fire department’s ability to protect the public. One Connecticut volunteer fire department reported that after a private equity firm bought the software platform it used to track emergencies, the yearly price skyrocketed from $795 to $5,000.

Private equity is also buying up companies that produce emergency radios, fire truck engines, and flame retardant chemicals.

By now we should all know that when private equity gets involved, prices go up and quality goes down — whether it’s housing or healthcare or even local newspapers.

Private equity managers get rich as they plunder vital industries and then take advantage of the carried interest loophole, which lets them pay a lower tax rate by classifying their incomes as investments.

Fire departments all over America are now facing higher costs, which makes it harder for them to replace aging equipment, train firefighters, and provide emergency services. Some firefighters even report going out on calls in fire engines with faulty brakes.

Can you imagine?

And even if they can afford new equipment, they have to wait longer for it. Sometimes years for a fire truck.

Let me ask you, honestly: Are private equity profits really more important than public safety?

States can and should prohibit private equity firms from sinking their teeth into vital public goods and services.

Oregon, for example, just passed the nation’s strictest law blocking private equity firms from controlling healthcare practices.

And Congress must follow through on eliminating the carried interest tax loophole that lets private equity managers get away with paying less in taxes.

We must not let private equity firms cash in while our communities burn.

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