The Legislation contained in Bill A10327A/S8019A to amend Town Law authorizing fire districts to exempt the cost of the Fire Fighter’s Cancer Benefit Program from the fire district’s spending limitation has been signed by the Governor.
Fire districts have a spending limitation that applies to certain categories of their annual budget under Town Law Section 176 (18). Under current law, there are sixteen exemptions to the fire district spending limitation; this bill simply adds the newly adopted volunteer firefighter enhanced cancer disability benefits to the list. Exempting the cancer
coverage insurance expense from the fire district budget spending limitation is critical for fire district finances.
This legislation will have no impact on the real property tax levy cap provided for under General Municipal Law Section 3-c. A fire district will be required to follow the current procedure if it wishes to exceed that cap. The fire district budget spending limitation is merely a mechanism to control spending in some but not all budget categories.
We want to take this opportunity to thank the Bill’s sponsors Assemblywoman Gunther and Senator Griffo for sponsoring this legislation to especially help those fire districts who are at the top of their spending limitation.