Slew of Bills Offering Tax Benefits and Employment Protection to Dwindling Number of Volunteer Firefighters En Route to Senate
Despite the efforts, rural firefighters remain skeptical about reversing the decline in their ranks
By Zeke Lloyd for Montana Free Press
A slew of legislation aimed at retaining Montana’s rural firefighting capacity is making its way to the state Senate.
In response to a growing demand and decreasing supply of volunteer firefighters, the House recently passed House Bill 128, which offers employment protection for volunteers who miss time at work. The chamber also advanced two pieces of legislation centered around tax benefits. House Bill 129 would offer income tax relief for volunteers and House Bill 140 would provide property tax breaks to the families of first responders severely injured or killed on the job.
Another bill, House Bill 127, would indirectly support rural firefighting efforts through an increase to the state’s fire suppression fund.
Though none of the bills saw more than four votes in opposition on their final reading in the House, questions over the legislations’ efficacy remain.
“These are nice gestures, but they’re not going to fix the problem,” said Rich Cowger, fire chief for Columbus Rural Fire District. Cowger also serves as president of the Montana State Fire Chiefs’ Association and legislative liaison for the Montana Fire Alliance, an organization of rural fire departments.
The difference between paid and volunteer firefighters underscores the reasons lawmakers are bringing the bills. Unlike professional firefighters, many volunteer firefighters work a full-time job and are not paid for their emergency response efforts. For rural communities unable to support full-time firefighters, local residents sometimes combat blazes in times of need.
“We rely on volunteers to protect roughly a third, or better, of the population of the state, and probably two-thirds, or better, of the area of the state,” Cowger said.
Volunteers’ ad-hoc existence makes them difficult to count, though MFA estimates the statewide figure hovers between 7,500 and 8,000. According to Cowger, that number is dwindling.
“It’s not just a problem here in the state of Montana, it’s nationwide,” Cowger said. “Our volunteer systems look significantly different than they did 20 or 30 years ago.”
To explain the trend in Montana, Cowger cited a limited number of young people moving to small towns because of the state’s decreasing affordability. He also said it’s hard to find people willing to do rigorous training for a dangerous job that offers no pay.
Freshman Representative Curtis Schomer, R-Billings, sponsored HB 140, legislation that would extend property tax relief for low- and middle-income law enforcement officers, emergency medical providers and firefighters who sustained severe injury while on the job. Families of first responders killed on the job would also be eligible for the same benefit.
At its conception, the bill included only paid personnel.
After nine proponents spoke in favor of the legislation during a mid-January hearing in the House Taxation Committee, Arlee resident Audrey Martin, a 26-year firefighter, and Townsend teenager Colt Bar, who aspires to be a third-generation first-responder, both praised the legislation’s intention before criticizing its exclusion of volunteer firefighters.
“It shouldn’t matter if you’re a paid or a volunteer fireman, you should be afforded the same coverage and respect that all firefighters and all first responders should receive,” Martin said.
Before the bill passed the House Taxation Committee at the end of January, Representative Neil Duram, R-Eureka, successfully added an amendment broadening the list of would-be recipients to include volunteer firefighters and emergency medical responders. Another amendment, also proposed by Duram, expanded the range of eligible income levels. The two changes increased the bill’s estimated annual cost after four years from $40,200 to $127,840.
“If this bill is passed, it will shift taxes from one group of people to another group of people,” Duram said, pointing out the bill’s potential Achilles’ heel while arguing in favor of the amendment to include volunteer firefighters and emergency medical providers.
Representative Llew Jones, R-Conrad, is carrying a number of bills meant to signal gratitude to Montana’s volunteer firefighters.
HB 128 prohibits employers from terminating firefighters and emergency medical providers if the volunteers miss work to respond to an emergency. HB 129 offers a $3,000 deduction from taxable income for non-paid firefighters and emergency care providers who remain active for the entire year.
HB 129’s annual cost to the state will reach roughly $800,000 by 2028. On the House floor, Jones estimated the amount written off in taxes to be in the range of $150 to $180 per volunteer.
“I’m not a big person for picking folks out and sending them dollars,” Jones said. “But in this case, I picked a fairly small amount and tried to do it in a very recognizable way to hope that we can say ‘thank you volunteers for all that stuff you do for us in these critical areas.’”
Jones also introduced two other bills aimed at improving the state’s capacity to fund and deploy wildland firefighters. HB 127 directs excess money from the General Fund toward the state’s fire suppression account.
HB 130 would allow Montana to charge the federal government for firefighting efforts undertaken by the state on federal lands in proximity to state or county property if the federal response does not align with state agencies’ aggressive fire suppression strategy. The potential impact of HB 130 remains up for debate as it is unclear how the federal government might respond to Montana’s requests for firefighting reimbursements.
Cowger is keeping a close eye on the bills now making their way to the Senate, but doesn’t feel optimistic about their capacity to reverse the decline in volunteer firefighters. The rural fire chief admitted no legislation would be a “silver bullet” and instead highlighted a desire for a shift in public perception.
“I always tell people the misnomer is that a volunteer fire department is not free,” Cowger said. “The only thing that’s free is those people dedicating their time.”