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East Allegheny School District approves volunteer firefighter tax break plan

March 13, 2024 / 12:41 PM EDT / CBS Pittsburgh

East Allegheny School Board approves tax credit plan

WILMERDING, Pa. (KDKA) - Several volunteer firefighters in the East Allegheny School District will soon be getting some tax relief.

The school board approved a plan that would give them a property tax credit of up to $300.

That credit would go to each firefighter and not exceed $7,000 per year across all departments.

"You got to fulfill a lot of requirements just to get this. Just because you sign up and get an application and you're a member does not mean you're getting this credit," West Wilmerding VFD Assistant Chief Merle "Bud" Pusey told KDKA.

In order to qualify, volunteers would have to serve one of East Allegheny's five communities and be with the department for at least a year.

The school board proposed the plan earlier this year in order to attract more volunteer firefighters as they were in need of more people at the time.

Patrick Damp

Patrick Damp is a web producer for CBS Pittsburgh. A Pittsburgh native who grew up watching KDKA-TV, Patrick studied journalism at Indiana University of Pennsylvania. After half a decade in sports communication, Patrick decided to pursue his dream of working in journalism in his hometown and joined the CBS Pittsburgh team in 2019.