fire37 wrote:
why pay fire police if firefighters dont get paid. i know you guys get a lot of calls so do many others

it shouldn't be a mater of who is getting "paid" or not or why they are getting "paid" it isn't as if the fire police or whoever is getting a paycheck each week....it is just something a bit extra. being a fire policeperson myself most if not all of us respond to a scene in our own vehicles and sometimes end up driving great distances to assist other departments with traffic or whatever. most often we are using our own resourses for gas, ect......i think it's a nice way to say thanks for standing in the middle of the road in the rain, snow, heat while dodging a-hole drivers......just a thought!

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Post edited by: Brooksie, at: 2005/09/18 12:34

I am a cumru fire policeman i will tell you i do it as a hobby. The extra money that i Earned though the year .The money pays for gas, blue lights and even more gear that will make things safe to work in.

HARRISBURG, February 12 -- Active volunteer fire and volunteer ambulance personnel would be eligible for a $250 state income tax credit under legislation (SBs 23 & 24) re-introduced by Senator Michael A. O'Pake (D-Berks) with broad bipartisan co-sponsorship in
the new session.

"Our volunteer fire and EMS first-responders save us billions; not to mention the fact that they're often called upon to risk their own lives to save others. This is a critical public service they perform, a service they perform without pay and a service we cannot do without. At the very least, they deserve a tax break for all that they do 24/7, 365 days a year," said O'Pake, the Senate's Democratic Whip.

Noting that New York State passed a similar state income tax credit for their emergency service volunteers last year and Maryland's volunteer firefighters have benefited by a tax credit for more than a decade, O'Pake said it was "long past time for Pennsylvania to act."

O'Pake first introduced his proposed tax break for emergency service volunteers in September, 2003. Since that time, the concept has been identified in a series of reports and studies as a key way to encourage volunteer first-responder recruitment and retention. A new 300-page study by the National Volunteer Fire Council, which surveyed some 5,000 volunteers nationwide, identified tax credits as
the "number one" recommendation "in terms of what would keep volunteers serving." Similarly, in a survey of 700 Pennsylvania volunteer firefighters for a study released last year by the Center for Rural Pennsylvania, 91 percent "strongly agreed" that a state income tax credit would "encourage them to continue to volunteer" and 82 percent "strongly agreed" that it would encourage new volunteers
to sign up. Senator O'Pake's tax credit legislation was also one of the principal recommendations of the special Senate Resolution 60 Commission that issued its report on improving the delivery of emergency services in Pennsylvania in November, 2004.

write off the milage to and from the hall for calls, worknights, meetings, etc. Keep record of lights, helmets, boots you buy......write them off too. The list is endless, you just have to know what to keep track of. Hell, you can even write off lottery tickets!