Changes are on the horizon for the over 100 volunteer firefighters in Troy, thanks to the IRS.
And, city officials are going to bat to amend the program and protect its firefighting force, according to Fox Detroit.
While they don't collect a paycheck, volunteers have an option to cash out an incentive program when they retire. The IRS wants the program altered.
"I know everybody hates the IRS, and right now I do too," Mayor Ethan Baker told reporters. "Those firefighters mean everything to our city. I’ve talked about them at length for as long as I’ve been mayor and on the city council. They are the heartbeat of our community as far as far as it goes with public safety."
Since the city only has 12 career firefighters, the city has battled to protect the 43-year-old incentive program that looks after volunteer firefighters many who have served over decades.
Volunteers aren't the only ones who will be impacted. Current retirees and beneficiaries also will take a hit.
"They’re going to get payouts based on what they have vested so far," Baker said. "The city has got about $14 million dollars in the volunteer firefighters' incentive trust plan already put away that has been accumulating for future retirees. We are going to have to use all of that to pay them out, plus the City’s going to have to pay about $5 million from its general fund to make these guys and girls whole, and we have to create a new plan."
The mayor says the reason for the move, is because their eventual payout after retirement is simply too much to be tax-exempt.
"So we are in the process of changing the plan. We don’t know exactly what that looks like right now."
