Court Opinion

ID: 9569064
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 20:10:17.674433+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T11:21:28.143868
License: Public Domain

Fletcher, Presiding Justice,
concurring.
Volunteer firefighters in rural fire departments challenge their exclusion from the Georgia Firemen’s Pension Fund as a violation of equal protection. There is a rational basis for granting benefits to firefighters who work for fire departments that are rated Class 8 or better but not to firefighters who work for Class 9 departments. The legislature’s classification bears a reasonable relationship to the legitimate government objective of improving the fire-fighting capabilities of fire departments. By offering state-funded benefits only to firefighters who work for fire departments that meet minimum standards, the state encourages local governments to use their resources to meet those standards and thus increase their fire department’s ability to suppress fires. For this reason, I concur.