Palmerton Area School District’s board of directors said Tuesday it would not take action on a tax break for volunteers who meet the required criteria within the Palmerton Municipal Fire Department.

Fire Chief Jason Behler approached the district about what he described as a tax incentive to try to get current fire department members more active and also recruit new volunteers.

Several years ago, Palmerton Borough approved the tax credit, which calls for qualifying volunteers to receive a property tax credit of 20%, up to a maximum of $150, and an earned income tax credit of up to $150 per year.

“In my opinion, I think this is a borough issue,” board President Kathy Fallow said. “We are very strapped in terms of our budget right now and we’ve just had to set a fairly high tax increase to our taxpayers. Turning around and doing this, I think, would be an affront to the taxpayers.”

The state Legislature, several years ago, approved a resolution allowing taxing bodies to issue such credits to entice volunteerism within emergency response agencies. Behler said the tax credits were one item on a list of about 120 things that departments could do to recruit more members.

“Right now, we have responded to just over 80 calls so far this year, with 564 hours logged. This is actually on emergency scenes. Based on a 40-hour workweek, this is basically working 14 weeks. I just want you to see that this is a huge commitment. We’re asking a lot of these people. And it’s just one thing I feel that we could do as a department to reward that type of service.”

As the fire chief, Behler has to set a minimum requirement for members to receive the tax credit.

“This doesn’t mean that you can come join the fire department, never show up one day in that year and achieve this,” he said. “For us, you have to achieve one training per month. We also have things that are done around the department like maintaining apparatus, cleaning the station, and things like that. You have to do one of those things a month and you have to make 10% of the fire department calls within a quarter.”

Right now, Palmerton Municipal Fire Department has 33 members consisting of both people who fight fires and also fire police who direct traffic at emergency scenes. For the first year, which would be 2019, Palmerton had 11 people who qualified for the borough tax credits. The past two years, seven people have qualified for the credits.

Still, Palmerton school board members expressed concern about the domino effect giving the tax credit to Palmerton’s fire department would have with Aquashicola, Towamensing and Bowmanstown fire departments, for example.

“I’m just concerned about the financial burden it would put on the district,” Director Sherry Haas said. “As soon as we did it for you, everyone else would come asking and three months down the road it could be 15 from another department, and then 15 from another department. I couldn’t make a decision without knowing the numbers we would be looking at for all of our firefighters from all of the departments that serve the district.”

Director Doris Zellers questioned how much the fire department was promoting a need for additional membership.

“As far back as May of 2019 was the first time I saw anything on your Facebook page referring to the fact that you may or may not need volunteers and that was in a letter that was sent out to residents,” Zellers said.

At any social event the fire department attends in the borough, Behler said, it always addresses membership needs.

“There is always a need for membership and it goes without saying,” he said. “You always needs new people. We do set up things internally that incentivize participation as well. We have discounted rates on cellphone plans for firefighters and their families. This tax incentive isn’t the only thing that we do in that regard.”

Fallow asked her fellow school board members if anyone would like to see the tax incentive advanced to a voting agenda. No hands were raised.