Gov. Kathy Hochul signed legislation this past December that created a property tax exemption for volunteer firefighters and ambulance workers. Under the exemption, 10% of the assessed value of a qualifying volunteer’s property will be exempt from property taxes.

It is an opt-in exemption; after it was signed into law, municipalities needed to create and pass their own resolutions in order to begin offering the exemption. Though the village board voted to adopt the exemption on Monday, the exemption will not be offered until the 2024-25 fiscal year, as it is too late to add it to the 2023-24 village budget.

The exemption will not change the total tax revenue collected by the village or towns. Instead, like the longstanding veterans exemption, the taxpayers who are not privy to the exemptions will need to pay slightly more in taxes.

The towns of North Elba and Wilmington, as well as the Lake Placid Central School District, have passed the same exemption in the last month.

In order to qualify, a volunteer firefighter or ambulance worker must currently be serving as a volunteer and must have served for at least the past two years. The exemption will be applied to their property, which must be their primary residence and located within the jurisdiction served by the fire department or ambulance entity to which the volunteer belongs. The property must be used exclusively as the volunteer’s residence. If it is used for mixed purposes, only the residential portion is entitled to the exemption.

Once a volunteer firefighter or ambulance worker has put in 20 years of service, the exemption will become permanent for as long as the property remains the qualifying volunteer’s primary residence. Additionally, the spouse of a deceased volunteer who served for at least 20 years and received the exemption on their property prior to their death may continue to receive the exemption, provided they continue to make that property their permanent residence and do not remarry. The same goes for the spouse of a volunteer who dies in the line of duty, though that volunteer is only required to have served for at least five years before their line-of-duty death.

The state offers a similar exemption for veterans of the U.S. Armed Forces, which North Elba, Wilmington and LPCSD already provide.

At the Oct. 16 meeting, members of the village board said that they would explore the veterans exemption before the 2024-25 fiscal year. Town of North Elba Assessor’s Aide Deb Mueller confirmed on Oct. 19 that the village already offers the exemption. This means that the village would not need to hold a public hearing or pass a resolution concerning the veterans exemption before the next fiscal year.