Our efforts to increase recruitment of volunteer first responders have been gaining bipartisan support in Trenton.
Earlier this year, along with my Legislative District 11 partners Assemblywomen Margie Donlon and Luanne Peterpaul, we introduced a package of bills to increase recruitment and retention of volunteer first responders. The legislation proposes a tuition credit, partial property tax exemption, and gross income tax credit to qualifying volunteer first responders.
It is gratifying to report that more of our Republican colleagues in the state Senate and Assembly have recently signed on as cosponsors to our bills.
Our volunteer first responders are the backbone of our communities, ensuring our safety, security, and wellbeing. As a former volunteer EMT, I can attest to the countless hours first responders put into training and education to ensure that they are able to provide the most comprehensive emergency services possible. They risk their lives fighting fires and helping people injured on the road, without pay and often without recognition. Their volunteerism takes them away from work and their families when emergency calls come in.
We owe them our support.
Currently, New Jersey is increasingly reliant on volunteers to serve as firefighters and EMTs. That has resulted in a statewide shortage of volunteers even as emergency calls have been on the rise. While our first responders are driven by a desire to help others, affordability is a key concern for them as it is for all New Jerseyans. If the current trends continue, municipalities will be forced to hire paid personnel or regionalize their emergency service efforts at the expense of local property taxpayers.
Under our sponsored legislation, S2385, volunteer first responders would be eligible to receive tuition credit of up to $1,250 per year to go towards county college, county vocational school, or county technical school for up to four years. First responders engaging in this program pledge to provide a minimum of four years of service to their respective volunteer fire company or volunteer first aid or rescue squad. The bill, which we sponsored in the Senate and the Assembly, is now before the Higher Education Committees of both houses.
Another of our bills, SCR82, authorizes municipalities to provide partial property tax exemption up to 15 percent on the primary residence of volunteer first responders. The measure has been received favorably in both the Senate and Assembly, which now must hold hearings to determine whether to put it on the ballot for voters to approve.
The final piece of our legislative package, S2386, calls for a gross income tax credit for volunteer first responders who utilize their personal resources, such as their own vehicles, to respond to emergencies.
The gross income tax credit for volunteer responders have been referred to the Budget and Appropriations Committee of both houses.
In these divisive times, when partisan politics dominate so much of the legislative conversation in Washington, we continue to take a bipartisan approach in Trenton.
Bipartisanship gets results.
We applaud all of the state legislators who have joined us in addressing first-responder recruitment and retention because when we work together, we make New Jersey a safer, more affordable, and more equitable place for everyone.
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