A recent op-ed defending cuts to non-duty injury leave for Fort Wayne firefighters (“Lowering the heat,” Aug. 13) leans on a familiar refrain: “How are we going to pay for it?”

It is a question worth asking, but the answer is not squeezing the very people who run toward burning buildings. The answer is fixing a tax system that punishes the poor and working class while letting wealth skate by.

Let us start with the facts. Under the current contract, firefighters can receive up to a year of full pay if sidelined by a non-duty injury or illness. The city wants to cut that to six months while keeping a full year for duty-related injuries.

That is a serious change, and it deserves more than vague claims about “top-100 city norms” and a “million-dollar price tag.” If those numbers are real, p

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