Mineola, NY---On February 27th, the Nassau County Legislature unanimously passed a local law to lower the number of years that volunteer firefighters and ambulance workers need to serve before qualifying for a partial tax exemption on their county portion of their property taxes.
Prior to the law going into effect, volunteer firefighters and EMTS had to serve for five years before qualifying for a tax exemption, but under this new law they would only need to volunteer for two-years before qualifying. This tax exemption allows volunteer firefighters and ambulance workers to apply for up to a 10-percent exemption on the assessed value of their primary residential property if they reside in the community that they volunteer in. Additionally, volunteers who accrue twenty or more years of service shall be granted the reduction for the remainder of the time that they reside in Nassau County, regardless of whether they are active or inactive from volunteering.
Local municipalities would need to opt into this change to allow the same exemption to be applied to their portion of property taxes.
“These selfless volunteers answer the call of duty at all hours of the day and night, put their own safety at risk for the community and spend an incredible amount of time in training and preparing to do the job they do so well.” Presiding Officer Richard Nicolello said. “The partial real property tax exemption should also help with recruitment to keep our fire departments strong.”