Robert Reynolds Sr., commissioner of the Montgomery Fire Department, appeared at the Village of Montgomery’s February 6 meeting and requested that the board adopt Real Property Tax 466-A, a local law that would give volunteer firefighters a 10 percent property tax exemption.
“This new law was signed into legislation on December 9, 2022, by Governor Kathy Hochul and took effect immediately. All tax entities must opt in,” Reynolds said. “This has been adopted by the County of Orange, the Valley Central School Board in our community, and it’s in the Town of Montgomery board meeting tomorrow night, which we anticipate that will pass.” (The Town Board has set a public hearing for February 21 at 7 p.m., at which time it is expected that it will adopt the same law).
Reynolds asserted that Montgomery’s volunteer firefighters make up a major component of the fire department and the law would help his team recruit and retain more members. He emphasized that volunteers save the town and village a lot of money, as the department would need to hire more full-time firefighters otherwise.
“These many men and women spend countless hours training and responding to emergency calls with our community for no pay,” he said. They do this while meeting their family obligations, and yet volunteering with the little spare time that they have to serve.”
“As part of the Fire Association of the State of New York, if we were to pay firefighters, it cost over $100,000 a year per firefighter,” he continued. “This is based on a 2016 study. Obviously, that number has went up over the years. You can see the savings that the volunteers do for our community.”
Reynolds then shared tax statistics, estimating that the average tax bill for a Montgomery household is $3,000, so each volunteer would save about $300. He said this would cost the village and town very little to defer.
“The Montgomery Fire Department has 78 active members, approximately 20 of them would be eligible for this exemption,” he explained. “If we multiply the 20 by the 10% savings of $300 each, it would amount to about $6,000.”
“The $6,000 would have to be deferred and paid for by the rest of the taxpayers in the village,” he continued. “There are approximately 1,300 households in the village, and obviously, many commercial occupancies that would take care of most of the tax portion this, literally resulting in less than a cost of a cup of coffee.”
Darlene Andolsek, the village’s deputy mayor, asked which tax entity would defer the exemption, seeing as the first district serves both the town and village. Reynolds stated that it would depend on where the given volunteer lives.
“The fire district encompasses more than the village, so only part of the members of the fire department will get the tax exemption?” she questioned.
“Each individual tax entity, meaning the fire district has to pass this, which they’re going to, the town has to pass it, the school district has to pass it, the village has to pass it,” Reynolds responded. So I as a village resident would get the 10 percent from the village taxes. My son lives in the town, he would get the 10% from the town.”
At the end of his comments, Reynolds added that the town and village board should adopt the law before March 1 so volunteers can be eligible for the exemption this year. The village board then voted to hold a public hearing on February 26 at 5 p.m., when they will likely pass the law.