HILLTOWNS — The Berne-Knox-Westerlo community was out in force to support a 10-percent property tax exemption for volunteer firefighters and EMS crew members who live in the school district. 
After hearing about 20 minutes worth of comments that were mostly in favor of the exemption on March 27, the BKW Board of Education adopted the measure 4-to-0, with board member Lisa Joslin, who is a member of the Westerlo Fire Department, abstaining. 

Board President Matthew Tedeschi also motioned to bump the initially-proposed eligibility requirement of three years down to the state-set minimum of two years, which the board authorized. 

New York State, because of new legislation last year permitting exemptions, allows tax authorities to require up to five years of service for eligibility; the towns in the Enterprise coverage area that have passed an exemption as of March 28 — Knox, Bethlehem, and Guilderland — have each required only two years. 

And, like those communities, BKW also extended a lifelong exemption to volunteers who have reached 20 years of service, and to spouses of those who have died in the line of duty. 

BKW Superintendent Timothy Mundell noted that the law does not make additional requirements for eligibility, such as training qualifications, because “none of that is codified in statutory law, so we don’t feel it’s appropriate to add our own qualifications in that regard.”

BKW is the largest Hilltown tax authority, both in terms of the area it taxes and the levy rate, and so its adoption of this law has the largest impact on the first responder community there. 

The tax rates per $1,000 of assessed value in each town for the 2022-23 school year are about: $28.08 in Berne; $33.43 in Knox; $17.34 in New Scotland; $28.08 in Rensselaerville; $1,872.25 in Westerlo (where properties are assessed at less than 1 percent of market value because it’s been decades since the town has performed a revaluation); $26 in Middleburgh; and $23.40 in Wright. 

Community comments

All of the speakers at the March 27 meeting ultimately advocated for the exemption.

While Berne resident and former BKW teacher and school board member Helen Lounsbury called the exemption itself “highly desirable,” she did note that the school district is facing financial uncertainty as the state makes changes to its Foundation Aid formula that could result in BKW losing money.

Those challenges and others, she said, “necessitates a careful evaluation of our current financial situation and future needs before we can move forward.”

The tax break for volunteer first responders, like other exemptions, for example, for veterans, shifts the burden to other taxpayers.

Other commenters were less qualified in their support. 

Helderberg Ambulance Captain Neal Hogan mentioned that his organization — with only 15 trained emergency medical technicians — responded to 522 calls in 2022, and highlighted the ability of the law to not just provide some small compensation for existing volunteers, but provide an incentive for more to join. 

Two local towns that have adopted the exemption, Guilderland and Bethlehem, have already moved to sponsoring paid ambulance crews.

Hogan told The Enterprise last October that the Helderberg squad was down to 10 trained EMTs among its 45 total members, and that it needed to replace five long-term volunteers, four of whom were EMTs. The difficulty of recruitment had prompted the squad to start a $5,000 scholarship program at the State University of New York College of Agriculture and Technology at Cobleskill to encourage students there to get involved. 

“I want to thank you for considering this resolution,” Hogan told the board of education this week. “If you could draft seven volunteers here for me … that’s what I really need.”

He said that anything that encourages volunteerism makes a difference. 

“Obviously, our hours are horrible,” he said. “The pay is non-existent. The training is rigorous. So we’re sort of at everybody’s mercy to come and support us.”

Westerlo firefighter and former fire chief Tom Diederich told the board that not passing the exemption could result in local fire districts shutting down, and the community coming to rely on paid firefighters. And, if one large fire department were to replace several local ones, home insurance premiums might go up because homes are further away from an emergency headquarters, he said. 

“Any idea that anybody can come up with that may help is a great idea,” Diederich said. “As I always put it, there’s no wrong ideas here. It’s just whatever will work for each organization.”

Knox resident Ed Ackroyd — who in 2016 advocated for veteran tax exemptions before the BKW Board of Education —  said that the tax break should be adopted “by all means.”

He also said that some incentive should be provided to volunteers who are not homeowners, since this would apply to much of the younger population that fire departments and Helderberg Ambulance hope to recruit. 

At the end of the hearing, when it was clear the exemption would be adopted, Tedeschi offered thanks to the first responders present, saying, “We are very fortunate in this community to have such a dedicated group of men and women, and hopefully some younger folks coming in along the way, who do such thankless work … So congratulations and thank you for all you do.”