O'PAKE'S TAX CREDIT FOR EMERGENCY SERVICE VOLUNTEERS WINS UNANIMOUS
SENATE FINANCE COMMITTEE APPROVAL

          Harrisburg, June 6, 2007 -- Active volunteer firefighters and volunteer ambulance personnel would be eligible for a $250 state income tax credit under legislation (SB 23) sponsored by Senate Democratic Whip Michael A. O’Pake (D-Berks) and unanimously approved by the Senate Finance Committee today.  The legislation now moves to the full Senate.
          “Our volunteer fire and EMS first-responders save us billions; not to mention the fact that they’re often called upon to risk their own lives to save others.  This is a critical public service they perform without pay; a service we cannot do without.  At the very least, they deserve a tax break for all that they do 24/7, 365 days a year,” O’Pake said.
          Noting that New York State passed a similar state income tax credit for their emergency service volunteers last year and Maryland’s volunteer firefighters have benefited by a tax credit for more than a decade, O’Pake said it was “long past time for Pennsylvania to take similar action."
          O’Pake first introduced his proposed tax break for emergency service volunteers in September, 2003.  Since that time, the concept has been identified in a series of reports and studies as a key way to encourage volunteer first-responder recruitment and retention.
          A new 300-page study by the National Volunteer Fire Council, which surveyed 5,000 volunteers nationwide, identified tax credits as the “number one” recommendation “in terms of what would keep volunteers serving.”
          Similarly, in a survey of 700 Pennsylvania volunteer firefighters for a study released last year by the Center for Rural Pennsylvania, 91 percent “strongly agreed” that a state income tax credit would “encourage them to continue to volunteer” and 82 percent “strongly agreed” that it would encourage new volunteers to sign up. 
          Senator O’Pake’s tax credit legislation was also one of the principal recommendations of the special Senate Resolution 60 Commission that issued its report on improving the delivery of emergency services in Pennsylvania in November, 2004.
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