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North Penn committee discusses school-district tax rebate to recruit volunteer firefighters
Summary
Chief Wigman urged North Penn School District to consider a school-tax rebate under Act 91 to help recruit and retain volunteer firefighters; administration and the committee signaled support to refer the proposal to the district finance committee for further analysis.
Chief Wigman, speaking on behalf of Montgomery Township fire chiefs, asked the North Penn School District Safe Schools Committee to consider a school-district tax rebate under Act 91 of 2020 to help recruit and retain volunteer firefighters.
Wigman told the committee that Pennsylvania’s volunteer firefighter ranks have fallen sharply — “in 1970, there was about 187,000 volunteer firefighters in Pennsylvania. And now we're somewhere around maybe 30,000 left,” he said — and described Act 91 as an expansion of earlier incentive legislation. He said Montgomery County this year implemented a points-based tax-rebate program (100%, 75%, 50%, 25%, 10%) and that about 195 volunteers from the North Penn area applied through the county program.
District administration and members asked practical questions about structure and eligibility. Mister Roan said a school-district rebate would be scoped to property owners who pay North Penn School District taxes, explaining, “they would not only have to live in the North Penn School District, but they would have to be a property owner in the North Penn School District because they are paying us taxes, and then we will rebate some of that money.” Roan and presenters discussed alternatives used elsewhere, including flat-fee models; Chief Wigman noted some municipalities provide $500 per active volunteer as a direct stipend.
Committee members and administration described next steps as analytic and procedural rather than immediate adoption. Chair Casa recommended forwarding the concept to the finance committee for budgetary review and counsel guidance; administration said that, if advanced, the board would likely need to adopt a formal resolution and clarify implementation mechanics.
Why it matters: District-level tax rebates would be a local policy lever aimed at stabilizing volunteer emergency response capacity across schools and communities. Any program would affect the district’s finances and require legal/counsel review to define eligibility, documentation and distribution.
Next step: The committee agreed to send the proposal to the finance committee for further study and to schedule presentations to the full board once finance has reviewed budget impacts and draft policy language.
