Editorial: Tax credit is low price for firefighters

How much is your life worth?

Is it worth as much as your neighbors’ house? Their car? Their kids?

Is it worth coming between a downed power line and a child on a bike? Is it worth the difference between a kitchen grease fire and the smoking ruin of a whole building?

These are the kind of questions Lower Burrell should be asking, because this is the very question that every firefighter answers when they step into their boots, pull on their coats and pick up their hats.

Lower Burrell, like most municipalities in Pennsylvania, does not pay salaried, professional firefighters. Instead, it relies on the bravery and altruism of people who choose to put their lives on the line rather than watch a house burn down. They show up to car crashes and floods and disasters — natural and man-made — to save the day or at least mitigate the impact.

And every year, there are fewer and fewer of them. Declining numbers affect every volunteer department. Not surprisingly, risking one’s life for free is not something people line up to do.

With that in mind, some municipalities have started to make a gesture to their firefighters in the form of a tax credit. In Lower Burrell, that proposal is on hold because the details have not been wrapped up. Doing so should be a priority, as the idea was first proposed three years ago.

Under the plan now on the table, Lower Burrell would forgo its half of the 1% earned income tax it shares with Burrell School District.

This is not a lot of money. At its maximum, it’s $300, and that would apply to a firefighter with a $60,000 income. Make less, and the credit goes down.

To pay a firefighter $300 a year to walk into burning buildings would be insane. This is not even doing that. This tells the firefighter, “You don’t have to pay us $300.”

In the end, it could cost the city about $12,000, the equivalent of one part-time, minimum wage employee.

Every municipality should evaluate its commitment to its firefighters and compare it to the firefighters’ commitment in return.