(Photo provided by the Willet Fire Department).
Cortland County legislators voted in favor of recommending a tax exemption for volunteer first responders Tuesday, but concerns about its usefulness linger.
The measure has been discussed this year. Now, legislators are ready to bring the bill to the full legislature for final approval later this month.
Legislators, however, wondered whether the proposal to provide 10% county property tax relief off the assessed value of a volunteer’s property does enough to incentivize residents to volunteer for fire crews and emergency medical services.
“It’s a good thing, but 90% of the volunteers probably won’t benefit from it,” said Legislator Mitchell Eccleston (R-LD-17).
Eccleston noted a couple of reasons for that, including that not all volunteers own property. Also, he added, volunteers already receive a $200 income tax credit through New York state for first responder services.
Laura Fox, the county’s director of real property, said volunteers can’t claim both tax benefits.
In order for the proposed 10% reduction to make more sense for volunteers, their property would have to be assessed at more than $200,000 in value.
“It's good. I'm in favor of it,” Eccleston said. “But it needs work in the future. I wish they could get both the tax credit and the property tax reduction.”
The proposal applies to members of volunteer ambulance services, volunteer fire companies, and volunteer fire departments who have been registered for at least two years. An application and certification must be filed with the municipal property value assessor every year to qualify for the tax relief.
To be eligible, the volunteer would have to live in the municipality served by their fire department or ambulance service, according to state guidelines. The property also has to be the volunteer’s primary residence.
A volunteer of 20 years can qualify for a lifetime exemption, legislature Clerk Savannah Hempstead said.
There are some other finicky applications of the proposed exemption, Fox said.
“If a married couple are both volunteers, one can get the tax credit, while the other one could take the property tax exemption,” Fox said. “They can’t both get the tax exemption.”
Eccleston said the exemption as currently proposed needs to pass, but officials at the state level need to look into providing more enticing options for volunteers.
“Maybe perhaps two or three years down the road you can modify it somehow to actually make an impact,” he said, adding that it is getting increasingly more difficult to find volunteers. “The Town of Willet only has 20 in that whole company down there and they had a couple major fires recently.”
The measure will go to a final approval at the legislative session at 6 p.m. next Thursday.
