You asked if there were any proposals during the 2007 session to exempt the municipal abatement or exemption granted to volunteer firefighters from the state income tax.

For tax purposes, federal and state law treat the property tax abatement or exemption that towns provide, under law, to certain volunteer emergency services personnel as taxable income (see OLR Report 2002-R-0722). Substitute House Bill 7315 would have excluded the value of such abatements and exemptions from the state income tax. The bill died on the House calendar (see File No. 897).

By law, a municipality may establish, by ordinance, a property tax relief program for volunteer emergency services personnel. The relief may take the form of (1) an abatement of up to $ 1,000 in property taxes due in any fiscal year or (2) an exemption up to a maximum of $ 1 million divided by the mill rate (expressed as a whole number per $ 1,000 of assessed value) at the time of the assessment (CGS § 12-81w). (An exemption represents a reduction of the property's assessed value for tax purposes; an abatement is a reduction in the amount of taxes owed. )

The volunteers the law covers are:

1. local civil preparedness directors (nonsalaried),

2. firefighters,

3. emergency medical technicians or paramedics,

4. civil preparedness staff,

5. members of canine search-and-rescue teams, and

6. ambulance drivers.

VR: dw