Since the early 2000s, there has been a significant decline in the number of volunteer firefighters and EMS personnel in New York State. It’s gone from roughly 120,000 volunteers to 75,000.
Statewide, and particularly in the North Country, the population is getting older, people are more mobile, and more families rely on two incomes. Volunteerism overall has declined.
The Firefighter Association for the State of New York, or FASNY, is hoping to reverse that trend with a new legislative package that would create incentives for volunteers.
80-90% of emergency response from volunteers
John D’Alessandro works for FASNY and has been an active volunteer firefighter in Saratoga County for the last sixteen years.
He said many people have the wrong idea about who it is that actually responds to emergencies. "People watch Chicago Fire, and they unfortunately assume when they go by their local fire station, that there is a paid crew of men and women there 24-7. The opposite is actually the truth."
In the United States, over 80% of fire and emergency response comes from volunteers. In New York, volunteers respond to over 90% of 911 calls.
D’Alessandro says volunteers save New York taxpayers about $3.8 billion dollars a year in salaries and benefits alone. "Most communities cannot buy their way out of their shortage of volunteer firefighters, especially in places like the North Country, small communities who have limited tax bases."
He said that's why recruiting and retaining new volunteers is so important.
Recruiting pattern is stagnant, the VOLI idea
To that end, FASNY has done a lot of traditional recruiting across New York over the last fifteen years, including a statewide outreach campaign, making lawn signs and banners for local departments, and sponsoring Recruit New York weekend each April.
"And we've had great success in the sense that we generally bring in about as many new people as we lose every year," said D'Alessandro.
But he said they’ve been holding at about 75,000 volunteers statewide for a while now. "We stopped the bleeding, so to speak, but we're not moving forward."
That’s where the Volunteer Optimization Legislative Initiative, or VOLI, comes in.
The legislative package consists of 14 actions geared towards removing the barriers that hold people back from becoming an emergency firefighter or EMS personnel.
"Fourteen independent things, and any one of them would assist a fire department as an incentive for people to join," said D'Alessandro. "To attack this problem of, ‘I don't have the time. I would love to do it. I know how important it is, but I just, I can't.’"
The incentives include an array of different tax credits and incentives that FASNY hopes will help ease volunteers’ time and financial burdens.
They include raising the state’s blanket tax credit from $200 to $800, creating a childcare tax credit for volunteers, and even student loan forgiveness. There are also no-cost actions, like doing away from a state rule that mostly prohibits career firefighters from volunteering for another department.
Here's a full list of the actions included in VOLI:
Enhanced Volunteer firefighter/EMS Tax Credit - increase the base tax credit to $800; allow for an additional graduated credit of up to $7500 annually (or amount to be determined) for service on a duty-crew shift.
Provide reimbursement for reasonable expenses incurred, whether through gift cards, gas cards, or in an amount not to exceed the Federal IRS Form 1099 threshold and exempt such payment from State income tax.
Childcare and family inclusion tax credit added to Tax Law § 606 for volunteer firefighters and EMS personnel, providing up a tax credit of $5000 to assist in childcare/daycare related expenses of volunteers.
Volunteer First Responder Housing Affordability - Full exemption for Volunteer Fire/EMS personnel on mortgage recording taxes for the purchase of a primary residence located within the State.
Volunteer First Responder Housing Affordability - Create option for a county/local exemption for county-imposed recording fees related to volunteer fire/EMS on purchases of real property located within the State.
Create an employer tax incentive for businesses to hire volunteer fire/EMS personnel contingent upon that employer allowing volunteer fire/EMS personnel to respond during business hours.
Remove the “either/or” prohibition in Tax Law § 606 to allow a volunteer firefighter or volunteer EMS worker to obtain the real property tax exemption and the income tax credit.
Grant volunteer fire and EMS workers equal workplace injury protection by bringing the benefits set forth the Volunteer Firefighters' Benefit Law and the Volunteer Ambulance Workers' Benefit Law equal to those set forth in New York's Workers' Compensation Law.
Allow the AHJ or a fire company to pay the local training stipend by amending General Municipal Law § 200-aa.
Allow municipalities to opt in to grant an exemption from property taxes for volunteers up to 100% by amending Real Property Tax Law § 466-a to
Award Length of Service Award Program (LOSAP) points to incentivize on-call duty shifts by volunteers by creating a new General Municipal Law § 217 (x).
Create a state-funded reimbursement mechanism to assist fire departments in offering this incentive if the fire department budget is below the $400,000 audit threshold.
Public service loan forgiveness and state tuition assistance for volunteer fire and EMS workers.
Add a new section to the General Municipal Law and Civil Service Law prohibiting any county, city, town, village, fire district, labor union and/or bargaining unit from imposing any restriction or disciplinary action on career firefighters prohibiting them from serving as volunteer firefighters or EMS workers in their home community.
Departments can choose what works for them
Importantly, says D’Alessandro, all of the initiatives would be voluntary for departments, as in, they would opt-in to the ones they wanted to use. He said the idea is to give local departments lots of choices in how best to recruit in their area.
"It's a statewide problem that needs to be solved at the local level. So give them the flexibility," he said.
D’Alessandro says volunteer emergency services have seen a lot of bipartisan support from the New York Legislature and from Governor Kathy Hochul in the past few years, like a stipend program for volunteers that would offset the cost of required training.
But he says they need to do more to incentivize people to become volunteers. He says FASNY would love to see all 14 of their initiatives passed, but that even a few of them could make a difference in recruiting. "We need to put as many things in a department's toolkit as we absolutely can so that they can pick and choose the things that fit for them."
Increasing participation on all levels in local emergency response
D'Alessandro says the hope is to increase the number of volunteer responders, but also to recruit more people on the administrative side.
"If you're a bookkeeper, mechanic, a handy person, or somebody who just likes fundraising and doing those sort of administrative type things," he said departments could use your help.
D’Alessandro says even a volunteer who’s just willing to clean off fire trucks and organize gear after a call could be a real help to many departments.
He says he himself spent twenty years driving past his local firefighting department before he joined, and that volunteering has changed his life. "Beyond my family, which is always first and foremost. It's been the most rewarding thing that I have in my life."
He says his only regret is that he waited so long to join.
