The Pine Board of Supervisors voted June 5 to amend the township’s volunteer service credit program to provide further tax incentives to members of the Wexford Volunteer Fire Company.
Pine previously passed an ordinance providing an earned income tax credit to members of the fire company. The maximum credit amounted to $300, according to township Manager Jason Kratsas.
Legislation passed by state lawmakers in 2020 allowed municipalities to provide 100% property tax relief to their volunteer firefighters.
Kratsas said the total cost of providing the relief amounted to about $2,500. The Wexford Volunteer Fire Company has 46 members, but only 17 who are Pine property owners are eligible for the credit. Many of them already receive tax relief through the homestead exclusion.
Kratsas said it’s a good incentive in a community that he said already had the lowest local property taxes in Allegheny County. Pine’s millage rate sits under 1 mill, meaning the owner of a home assessed at $500,000 would owe less than $500 in local property taxes, he said.
“Based on the financial evaluation that we did, we feel that it would be prudent to adopt this amended ordinance. The main reason for this amendment is because it is a benefit for our volunteers to help them build, recruit and retain the number of volunteers in their fire company. We can do this to support them,” Kratsas said during a public hearing before supervisors voted to amend the volunteer service credit program.
“It’s a really good investment to make,” Kratsas said.
