Madison County offers tax relief to volunteer firefighters, ambulance workers

WAMPSVILLE — Volunteer firefighters and ambulance workers who live in — and own a home in — Madison County will soon see some relief on property taxes under a new law that the county recently passed. Local Law No. 2 of 2024 provides for a real property tax exemption for those volunteers who put their lives on the line to help others, says Kyle Reger, Cazenovia town supervisor and member of the Madison County Board of Supervisors. Reger began pursuing the new law earlier this year — after just taking office in January — after the Town of Cazenovia passed a similar type of exemption in December 2023. He began talking to others in Madison County like the treasurer and real property tax director, along with Dan Degear, director of the county’s emergency management office. “The whole idea was we have this tremendous group of volunteers in our community who are willing to risk their lives,” Reger says. He wanted to do something that would help them in return. The county crunched some numbers, and “it seemed to be a viable solution that we could move forward,” Reger says. The result is the county’s newest local law, adopted by the Board of Supervisors on Aug. 13. Next up, the law must be approved by the state before it can take effect. Once it does, volunteer firefighters and ambulance workers residing in Madison County can apply for a real property tax exemption of 10 percent of their property’s assessed value for town and county tax purposes. The law is important on multiple levels, Degear says. Volunteer firefighters and ambulance workers not only give of their time, but also incur a lot of personal expenses, including traveling to and from scenes in their personal vehicles and attending required training.

“Anything we can do to help pay that back a little bit,” Degear notes. There are some restrictions on applying for the tax break, though. The tax exemption can only be granted to an enrolled member of an incorporated volunteer fire company, fire department, or ambulance service. The applicant must live in the city, town, or village served by the volunteer organization, and the property must be their primary residence. Applicants also must have completed two years of active service with the volunteer organization. Each incorporated volunteer organization will submit a list of its enrolled members to the appropriate city, town, or village assessor. Volunteers who have accrued 20 years of active service are eligible to receive the 10-percent exemption for their lifetime, as long as their primary residence is located within Madison County. The law also contains provisions for widows and widowers of those killed in the line of duty to receive an exemption, if they have not remarried. Reger says it’s too soon to say what the financial impacts of the law will be. It depends on numerous factors including how many people apply for the exemption. “The volunteers aren’t going to get rich off this, and the county’s not going to go broke,” Degear notes. Madison County hopes the exemption will serve as a recruitment tool for the various volunteer fire and ambulance organizations to bring in new volunteers. That could save the county and its villages and towns money if it means they don’t have to create paid professional positions to fill a void left by a lack of volunteers. Once the state approves the law, qualified volunteers can start applying in 2025 for the exemption, which will apply to the 2026 tax year.