The men and women who volunteer to serve as firefighters and emergency medical personnel are some of the most selfless citizens, the truest embodiment of being a good neighbor and deserving of all our thanks and appreciation.As I continue to attend local fire installation dinners this season, I am amazed by the number of calls these volunteers answer – many over 400 a year – which is more than one a day.

The reality is that the volunteer fire and ambulance service is the backbone of our rural and suburban communities, saving property taxpayers over $3.3 billion per year. However, we have lost over 20,000 volunteers statewide in the past two decades while the calls have nearly doubled.

Since taking office, I have made recruitment and retention of volunteer firefighters and EMS workers a top priority and have also worked hard to create the state’s Task Force on Volunteer Firefighter Recruitment and Retention (A.9779-A of 2020). Their report is in, and it echoes much of what I learned from meeting firsthand with many volunteers. Recommendations include stipends and more flexible options for training, tuition assistance and reimbursement for personal travel to accident scenes. The full task force report can be found here: https://afdsny.org/news_manager.php?page=25929.

This task force’s work has now gained attention in this year’s proposed budget by Gov. Hochul, which includes new state funding of $10 million for training stipends and authorizes nominal compensation for firefighters. I support this initial progress, but there is even more the state should be doing to address this recruitment and retention crisis.

That’s why I drafted a new bill this session to create a Volunteer Emergency Services Mileage Reimbursement Tax Credit so volunteers can be compensated for gas and vehicle wear and tear for performance in their volunteer fire and ambulance service (A.4094), reintroduced a bill for paid time-off for training with tax credits for employers (A.2267) that can expand the training stipends proposed by Gov. Hochul and support additional tuition and vocational opportunities to encourage individuals to join our volunteer fire and EMS service.

I am also pleased to report that Gov. Hochul signed A10155-A of 2022, which I co-sponsored to allow local governments the option to provide a 10 percent property tax exemption for our volunteer firefighters and ambulance volunteers.

In conclusion, I will continue to advocate for additional resources for our dedicated volunteer fire and EMS service. Thank you to everyone who volunteers – and I encourage those who are currently not involved to please consider becoming a volunteer firefighter or EMT or participating in the fire company as an exempt or auxiliary member. To learn more, please go to www.fireinyou.org.