NY bill would make SUNY tuition free for volunteer EMS, firefighters
State lawmakers are pushing to provide free State University of New York, CUNY, or community college tuition to active volunteer firefighters, volunteer EMS workers, and volunteer auxiliary police officers in New York.
The new legislation aims to help reverse decades-long declines in volunteer emergency responder ranks statewide, while rewarding those already serving their communities, state Sen. Jeremy Cooney, D-Rochester, said in a statement this week announcing the bill.
How volunteers could get free tuition in NY
Any student eligible for in-state resident tuition rates at SUNY colleges and CUNY or community colleges would be eligible for the program. It would cover the tuition cost of one undergraduate degree with several other conditions, such as requiring volunteers to apply for certain other scholarships and education aid.
To keep the free tuition throughout their studies, the student must maintain at least a 2.5 cumulative grade point average and remain an active emergency responder volunteer. The program would not cover housing, fees and other non-tuition related charges. SUNY tuition per year for state residents was $7,070 for the 2023-24 semesters.
The effort joins other state measures seeking to boost emergency responder volunteerism, including a bill that would increase volunteer firefighters' and ambulance workers' personal income tax credits from $200 to $800 for eligible individuals and from $400 to $1,600 for eligible married joint filers.
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NY's volunteer emergency responder crisis
The number of active EMS practitioners in New York has fallen in recent years. In 2019, the state had over 40,000 active EMS workers. By 2022, there were only 33,000, a decline of 17.5%, according to a state comptroller's report released last month.
EMS agencies frequently cited staffing issues including declining volunteerism, difficulties recruiting qualified staff, and low pay for EMS staff compared to other occupations in health care and public safety, the report noted.
Declining ranks of volunteer EMS, the report added, have increases pressure on local and county governments that have struggled to keep pace with rising costs for providing emergency services.
The total number of local governments reporting expenditures for ambulance or rescue squads has remained relatively steady from 2012 to 2022. Expenditures for these services, however, have been rising, increasing by 59% over that period, from about $105 million to $167 million, the report shows.
The number of volunteer firefighters statewide declined from 140,000 in the early 1990s to less than 90,000 just a few years ago, according to state records, citing data from the Firefighters Association of the State of New York, or FASNY.
Volunteer emergency medical technicians, or EMTs, experienced a decline from more than 50,000 to 35,000 during the same period, with some rural counties experiencing as much as a 50% depletion of their EMT ranks, they added.
Emergency responder advocates have for years noted boosting volunteer ranks would help local and state governments avoid creating more paid emergency service departments, which currently cost taxpayers billions of dollars to operate.
"Our 80,000 volunteer firefighters save New Yorkers almost $4 billion annually in additional local property taxes through their unpaid service to their communities," FASNY President Edward Tase, Jr. said in a statement Wednesday supporting the free tuition bill.
This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: Free SUNY tuition for volunteer fire, EMS? NY bill is pushing for it
