JOURNAL NEWS - Tax Watch: Millions in '2%' tax money showered on fire departments
By David McKay Wilson
The last time Hope Engine Co. 1 in White Plains was called for help was in 2013, after a fire broke out at the YMCA and an emergency shelter was set up for a few days, recalls company Treasurer Robert Amadio.
Nevertheless, the volunteer company, one of the six in White Plains that have no role in fighting fires in the city, has since received $165,000 in state tax money from the little known 2 percent levy on home insurance premiums written by out-of-state companies.
Enacted more than a century ago to provide aid to volunteer and paid firefighters prior to disability and worker's compensation laws, that money today brings in $60 million a year....
.....Parties, dinners and mortgages
What goes on in White Plains is repeated, in varying degrees, at many volunteer and paid departments throughout the state, with fire agencies given broad latitude on how the tax can be used......
....The biggest chunk — $16.1 million — went to New York City, which is the only department where all of the 2 percent money go directly to city coffers. That’s up 28 percent since 2014, based on increased premiums, said Ron Klug, a spokesman for the state Department of Financial Services.....
....The Yonkers case
DiNapoli’s audit of Yonkers, begun in 2015, discovered that the Mutual Aid Association of the Paid Department of the City of Yonkers for years has spent millions of tax dollars in violation of state law.
The association, run by Yonkers Local 628 of the International Association of Fire Fighters, suspended most activity in July 2016, after DiNapoli pointed out that the state law establishing the association in the early 1900s restricted spending to the care of indigent and disabled firefighters.
The association has not spent its 2 percent money for the care of indigent and disabled firefighters.
Instead, the association in 2015 spent $559,000 on perks for Yonkers firefighters, such as gym memberships, co-payments for medical care, dinner-dances and a softball tournament. The union collected $83,000 to administer the association’s 2 percent money.
In the 2017 state Legislature’s final days, the union won passage of a bill that would allow it to spend the 2 percent money.....
.....“The money needs to be put used to enhance fire services,” Mike Spano said.
“The law was put into effect at a time when firefighters didn’t get unlimited sick time or disability retirement benefits. We need to come up with something that’s better for taxpayers.”....
http://www.lohud.com/story/money/personal-finance/taxes/david-mckay-wilson/2017/10/05/2-percent-tax-money-tax-watch/707591001/
