OUR VOLUNTEER EMERGENCY SERVICE RESPONDERS DESERVE A TAX BREAK

By Senator Michael A. O'Pake (D-Berks),
Senate Minority Whip
January 13, 2005        

                 No other state relies more heavily on volunteers for fire protection and emergency service response than Pennsylvania.  Our dedicated volunteers save us billions; not to mention the fact that they're often called upon to risk their own lives to save others.  At the very least, they deserve a tax break for the critical public service they provide. 

                 That's why, as the 2005-06 session of the General Assembly opened, I made it a point to make sure that legislation I first proposed in the previous session to grant active volunteer fire and EMS personnel a $250 annual state income tax credit was re-introduced early in this new session.

                  Senate Bills 23 and 24 provide for a tangible recognition of the true public servants of our time:  the men and women who don't get paid for responding 24/7, 365 days a year to fires and just about every other imaginable emergency; the men and women who sacrifice time and energy away from home and family to train, fund raise, maintain equipment and facilities and keep our local fire and ambulance companies afloat; the men and women who give of themselves in service to their communities in the proud neighbor-helping-neighbor tradition that is the basis of our emergency service organizations in Pennsylvania.

                  Since I first offered my volunteer emergency service tax credit bill in the last session, it's won the unanimous backing of a special bipartisan legislative commission, the so-called Senate Resolution 60 Commission, that was created for the purpose of recommending actions to improve the delivery of emergency services in Pennsylvania.                       

                 The 25 member commission -- made up of legislators from both houses of the General Assembly and both parties with jurisdiction over emergency services issues, the state Fire Commissioner, and representatives of fire and EMS organizations from throughout the state, as well as county, city, township and borough local government associations -- identified my proposal as one of their key recommendations to help retain the dedicated fire and emergency medical service volunteers we already have while also serving to help attract the next generation of recruits we desperately need.

                 Active status for tax credit eligibility would be determined by a service point system for volunteer firefighters under Senate Bill 23 and for volunteer Emergency Medical Service personnel under Senate Bill 24.  Eligibility would be based on such factors as the number of emergency calls responded to by a volunteer in a given year, a volunteer's level of training and participation in drills, and time expended on administrative and other support services such as fundraising and maintenance of facilities and equipment.  Other accountability provisions are contained in the legislation to make certain that the tax credit provides the incentive intended and is awarded to the many volunteers who deserve it. 

                 The fact is several other states, including the bordering state of Maryland, have seen the wisdom of enacting tax credits as volunteer recruitment and retention tools.  Since Maryland's program was first implemented in 1996, they've seen about a 5,000-volunteer increase in the number who qualify for their service points-based tax credit.

                 The critical need for a similar program in Pennsylvania, and other incentive measures like it, is evidenced by the fact that while Pennsylvania's communities continue to rely heavily on volunteers for emergency response, the ranks of our volunteers have shrunk by more than half over the past 20 years from an estimated 152,000 in 1985 to 70,000 or fewer today.   If we don't stem this decline, the many tasks performed by a decreasing number of volunteers will only exacerbate the problem and overwhelm those who remain active.           

                 The bottom line is simply this:  Pennsylvania, in partnership with its local municipalities, needs to act.  We cannot afford to wait until it's too late.  If we lose our volunteers and the community-based volunteer fire and emergency service organizations that serve the vast majority of our communities, we will all be poorer as a society -- both financially and otherwise.

                                                       ###