ALBANY, N.Y. — Volunteer fire departments across New York are facing steep staffing declines, according to the Firefighters Association of the State of New York.
FASNY Association Secretary John d’Alessandro said the state has lost about a third of its volunteer firefighters over the past 20 years. In response, the association has launched a volunteer optimization legislative initiative aimed at strengthening recruitment and improving retention for departments statewide, WBNG reported.
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“For the last 10 years, our efforts have basically stopped the bleeding in the sense that we were bringing in about as many people as we were losing every year,” d’Alessandro said. “So, we wanted to start to get ahead of this now.”
The initiative outlines 14 policy proposals for state, county and local leaders. FASNY says shrinking rosters combined with rising call volumes, are increasing the workload on remaining volunteers, accelerating burnout and driving further departures from the volunteer fire service.
The proposals listed are:
- Enhance volunteer firefighter/EMS tax credit — Increase the base credit to $800 and add a graduated credit (up to $7,500/year, amount TBD) for certified duty-crew shifts of at least four hours ($50 per 4-hour shift).
- Authorize expense reimbursements — Create a new General Municipal Law allowing AHJs or fire companies to reimburse reasonable volunteer expenses (e.g., gift/gas cards) up to the IRS 1099 threshold, exempt from state income tax.
- Add childcare/family inclusion tax credit — Add a Tax Law credit of up to $5,000 for volunteer childcare/daycare expenses.
- Volunteer housing affordability — Fully exempt volunteer fire/EMS from mortgage recording taxes when purchasing a primary residence in New York.
- Volunteer housing affordability (local option) — Allow a county/local exemption for county recording fees tied to volunteer fire/EMS real property purchases.
- Create employer tax incentive — Incentivize businesses to hire volunteer responders if they allow responses during business hours, with workplace protections.
- Remove “either/or” limitation — Amend tax law to allow volunteers to receive both the property tax exemption and the income tax credit.
- Equalize injury protections — Bring volunteer firefighters’/ambulance workers’ benefits in line with workers’ compensation.
- Expand training stipend authority — Amend General Municipal Law to include “or authority having jurisdiction” so AHJs or fire companies can pay the local training stipend.
- Expand property tax exemption option — Amend Real Property Tax Law to let municipalities opt in to up to a 100% property tax exemption for volunteers.
- Incentivize duty shifts via LOSAP — Create General Municipal Law to award LOSAP points for on-call duty shifts.
- Add state reimbursement for incentives — For local compensation proposals, create a state-funded reimbursement for departments under the $400,000 audit threshold.
- Provide education benefits — Offer public service loan forgiveness and state tuition assistance for volunteer fire/EMS.
- Protect dual service — Prohibit local governments, unions and bargaining units from restricting or disciplining career firefighters who volunteer as fire/EMS in their home communities.
Broome County Firefighters Association President Robert Brady said the impact is clear locally, with the number of volunteer firefighters dropping from about 2,000 25 years ago to roughly 900 today.
“Everybody wants to do something pretty much that is compensated. The days of really volunteering, and that goes for any organization, not just the fire service, is pretty much gone,” Brady said. “Like a second job or a part-time type of thing where you could be reimbursed for something.”
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