County Eyes Giving Tax Breaks To Volunteer Firefighters
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MAYVILLE -- Chautauqua County officials are looking to give a discount on property taxes to volunteer firefighters.
During Wednesday's scheduled legislature meeting, county lawmakers will vote on two local laws -- one on adopting the Volunteer Firefighter and Volunteer Ambulance Worker Exemption for county real property taxes. The second local law will extend the volunteer Firefighter and Volunteer Ambulance Worker Exemption for county real property taxes to certain eligible unremarried spouses.
The local laws have been discussed during multiple legislature committee meetings.
Legislator Terry Niebel, R-Sheridan, said the exemption would be for 10% and would apply to volunteer firefighters with at least two years of experience.
Volunteers who have 20 years of experience would be given a lifetime exemption.
Niebel said the intent of the local laws is to be retroactive on service. Therefore, if a volunteer already has 18 years of experience in their local fire department, they would only need to volunteer for two additional years to get the lifetime exemption.
Should the local law pass this month, Niebel said the tax break won't come until 2024 due to the taxable status date which is March 1.
According to Niebel, in order to be eligible, volunteers will need to be certified.
County Attorney Patrick Slagle said the certification will be done by local fire departments.
"There will be some questions for them to figure out," he said, referring to if there's a minimum number of calls or drills that they participate in.
Niebel agreed.
"The county is not going to set a standard. We're not going to say, 'You have to go to six drills a year and 20 fire calls.' That's going to be decided by the local departments," he said.
Members will go to their local assessor's office to fill out a form to get the tax break.
Niebel said because the legislation was designed to recruit and retain volunteer firefighters, they're not expecting social members to be eligible.
Legislator Tom Nelson, D-Jamestown, asked if a former active volunteer who is now strictly a social member would be eligible, particularly if they had served more than 20 years in the department, would be eligible.
Slagle said they may be but he's not certain. He said the legislation, which began at the state level, will be flushed out further as more counties, towns and villages adopt the legislation.
Niebel guesses there are around 1,600 volunteer firefighters who could be eligible for the discount. He's guessing that about 25% won't apply for the discount for various reasons, including that they rent property or don't own their primary residence.
Niebel is estimating that the legislation could give on average $85 per firefighter. If that's correct, it would mean about $102,000 would not be collected in property taxes.
"For every increase of $90,000, that's 1 cent more on our tax rate. Our tax rate last year was $7.80, so we're looking at an increase of 1 cent to 1 and a half cents, if we pass the legislation," he said.
The county has been discussing this option for the past two months, since New York state changed the legislation allowing municipalities to give the tax break if they so choose.
If approved, this will only apply to county property taxes. The Mayville Board of Trustees passed similar legislation, giving a tax break for village volunteer firefighters, starting in 2024.