Woodbury adopts local law to extend assessment reduction to volunteer firefighters and ambulance members living outside the village

Woodbury Mayor Andrew Giacomaza and the Village Board on Jan. 23 adopted Introductory Local Law 1 of 2025, titled “Taxation,” to allow volunteer fire and ambulance personnel who live outside the village to be eligible for a village property-assessment reduction if the municipality’s local law permits it.

The measure implements changes recently made by the state legislature to the Real Property Law that permit municipalities to extend assessment relief to volunteers who serve outside their municipality of residence, Village Treasurer Pavan said during the hearing. Pavan said the village previously had a local law with similar language but that two sections still needed to be updated to reflect the state change.

The law applies only to the village portion of the property tax levy. A trustee asked whether the reduction would affect town, county or school taxes; Village Treasurer Pavan replied the change applies only to the village and that other jurisdictions would have to take their own actions to provide similar relief. The treasurer gave an illustrative example that a qualifying volunteer could save about $120 on a village tax bill.

Trustees held a public hearing on the local law (public comment period produced no speakers), then moved to adopt the local law. The board voted unanimously to adopt Introductory Local Law 1 of 2025.

The law updates the village code’s volunteer-fire provisions to reflect the state amendment and clarifies that the assessment reduction applies to “enrolled” volunteer members — consistent with the chapter heading referencing volunteer fire service. The village clerk will publish the adopted local law in the minutes and file the measure as required under state law.

The change takes effect according to the local-law filing rules; the village did not specify an effective date during the meeting.