LA PLATA — Charles County’s volunteer firefighters and EMTs are asking state lawmakers to let more of them claim a property tax break meant to keep them on the job.
Language that would remove the income cap on the county’s property tax credit for volunteer emergency responders has gone to Annapolis for the General Assembly session that begins in January, a representative of the county’s volunteer fire and EMS associations told the Board of Fire and Rescue Commissioners at its October meeting. Volunteer leaders plan to be in Annapolis to push it through, he said.
The goal is to get volunteers “more aggressively into this particular incentive so we can get some more volunteers back into being an active part of our system,” he said.
The $150,000 limit
A 2023 state law, Senate Bill 521, passed unanimously in both chambers and signed by the governor that May, set the current terms: Charles County may give the credit on the owner-occupied home of an active or retired volunteer member of a county fire, rescue or EMS company, or an unmarried surviving spouse, but only if that person’s federal adjusted gross income was $150,000 or less the year before.
Removing the cap would require another change to state law, which is why the request is headed to the county’s delegation in Annapolis. The volunteer representative did not say how many members are shut out by the income limit, what the credit is currently worth or what removing the cap would cost the county.
The tax break is one of several tools the county uses to hold on to volunteers, whose companies run largely on fire and rescue tax money the board distributes. At the same meeting, the board moved $1.15 million into the volunteer retirement fund a month early so benefits would not have to be paid by selling investments.
A federal grant with an end date
Recruiting also leans on federal money. The associations are still spending a FEMA SAFER grant for recruitment and retention, with another $25,000 available next quarter for billboards and radio ads, the representative said, and he urged departments to tell the association if they want to use it.
The grant ends in December 2027. The associations plan to apply for another one so they can keep their recruitment and retention coordinator and continue recruiting, he said.
The pipeline is starting young. The county’s high school cadet program has 22 students, seven in class 30 and 15 in class 31, and 12 of them are in EMT training, he said. All of the cadets passed the two-week breathing apparatus and protective gear course, and a Firefighter I class is underway. Cadets staffed the recruitment booth at the county fair this fall.
The associations are also rebuilding their website, which the representative said he hopes to have up by the end of the month.
