By Vince Gasparini
syracuse.com
SYRACUSE, N.Y. — Gov. Kathy Hochul signed legislation that will quadruple New York’s personal income tax credit for volunteer firefighters and ambulance workers, the governor’s office announced Saturday in a news release.
The legislation will increase the annual personal income tax credit from $200 to $800 for individuals and from $400 to $1,600 for married couples beginning in tax year 2027, according to the news release.
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The new law also allows eligible volunteer firefighters and ambulance workers to claim either the increased state income tax credit or a qualifying local property tax exemption, according to the news release.
The increased tax credits come as volunteer firefighters across the state, including in Onondaga County, have recently pushed for new state laws to further compensate volunteers.
Some local firefighters even proposed allowing departments to directly pay volunteers $12,000 a year, Tony McIntyre, former chief of the North West Fire District, told Syracuse.com earlier this year. That department covers Lysander and Van Buren.
A decades-long struggle to recruit volunteers has led some departments to close or merge, including half a dozen last year. While recruiting has somewhat improved, retaining volunteers is a bigger problem, McIntyre said.
Right now, the ranks of volunteer firefighters have hit a 40-year low, according to advocates who want volunteer firefighters to be paid.
Statewide, the number of volunteers has fallen from around 120,000 in 2000 to 80,000 this year, according to the Firefighters Association of the State of New York.
Volunteer ambulance corps are having the same challenges.
In LaFayette, town officials have put an ambulance tax on the Nov. 3 ballot, asking voters to approve a 16% tax hike to pay for full-time EMS crews. Insurance reimbursements fail to cover the payroll in a rural department like LaFayette, which answers about 20 to 25 calls each month across 40 square miles.
The alternative is stark. AMR, a paid service, left Cayuga County in 2023 because there wasn’t enough emergency business to cover costs. North Shore Ambulance Service in Oswego County closed two summers ago after a 75-year run. Across the state, nearly 100 ambulance services folded between 2013 and 2023.
Currently there are 1,800 volunteer fire departments in New York State and 50 in Onondaga County, according to FASNY.
FASNY had previously proposed 14 ways to compensate volunteers that the group believes would be more equitable than allowing departments to pay them directly, John D’Alessandro, secretary for FASNY, told Syracuse.com earlier this year.
Among those proposals were increased tax credits. Other proposals included increased reimbursement for mileage and other work-related costs, a childcare tax credit or stipend, and property tax credits.
Currently, volunteers receive $200 in tax credits and can also pay lower property taxes in some jurisdictions, D’Alessandro said. Some departments also have a pension-like program that pays longtime volunteers small amounts annually.
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