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Rules Committee expands volunteer firefighter/EMS exemption and approves higher veteran property-tax exemption limits
Summary
The committee advanced a local law to expand property-tax exemptions for volunteer firefighters and ambulance workers to include volunteers who serve in districts adjoining their home municipality, and approved raising county limits on veterans'property-tax exemptions (unchanged since 2001). Both measures were passed by the committee.
The Rules Committee approved a local law to expand the county'level property-tax exemption for volunteer firefighters and volunteer ambulance workers so that eligible volunteers may qualify if they serve in a fire or EMS district that adjoins their home municipality. The proposed change follows a state amendment to New York Real Property Tax Law that permits counties to extend the exemption to adjoining districts.
Paul Wiley, Director of Real Property Tax Services, presented the item and said the change responds to volunteers who live in one municipality and serve across an adjoining district. Committee members asked whether "adjoining" requires a shared border; Wiley said the state uses words such as "abutting," "adjoining" and "neighboring," and that the intended meaning is an actual adjoining boundary between districts. The committee approved the local law and will publish the extension with the effective date noted in the legislative request.
The committee also approved a request to increase the county's veterans property-tax exemption limits under New York Real Property Tax Law
Wiley and county staff explained the county last adjusted the limits in 2001. Staff provided cost estimates showing modest increases in average homeowner cost: moving to intermediate proposed increases would raise the average homeowner's share by about $4 to $5 annually; adopting the maximum allowable county increase shown in staff materials would increase the average homeowner cost by about $15 per year. Staff noted the pool of eligible veterans declines each year and said the county'level change could encourage towns and villages to raise their local caps as well.
Both the volunteer-exemption amendment and the veteran-exemption increase passed the committee by voice votes.
