Veterans' Tax Exemption Revisited By Scarsdale BOE

The issue of the Alternative Veterans' Tax Exemption was revisited at the Board of Education (BOE) business meeting on January 12, 2015.

To recap, Governor Cuomo enacted legislation in December 2013 that would allow (but not require) school districts to provide tax relief to qualified veterans. Veterans already receive partial exemptions for Village and County taxes, and this new legislation provides an additional avenue for exemptions. The law provides a benefit for qualifying veterans and their surviving spouses by reducing their taxable assessments – and therefore their property taxes. As of April 2014, there were 305 veterans in Scarsdale receiving various levels of exemptions.

In April 2014 the BOE discussed this issue at a business meeting. Ultimately, the Board voted against the exemption by 5-1 based on the fact that information about the implications to the other taxpayers were unclear partially because Scarsdale was in the midst of a property valuation reassessment. The burden of the exempted amount (at the time estimated to be $558,358 at the highest level of exemption) would not be funded through the state or federal government but would be shared among the balance of Scarsdale taxpayers. The legislation required the resolution to adopt the exemption to be passed by May 1, 2014 (along with a required public hearing) so there was little time to gather additional financial information or hear from the general public on the issue. Many veterans spoke at that meeting and were extremely disappointed that the BOE voted to take no action on the matter.

Fast forward to January 2015 when the BOE feels more confident about the timing and its ability to gather information. The Board was in agreement last night that it should move forward with the first step of providing the basic exemption level for qualified veterans. Once a resolution that a basic level of tax exemption is enacted, the Board may decide to increase or decrease the exemption level based on specific guidelines set forth in the legislation. The decision to increase or decrease the exemption amount is required to be made under a separate resolution and after a public hearing. The plan right now is that a resolution on the basic exemption will be available for discussion at the next BOE meeting on January 26, 2015 and will be voted on at the February 9, 2015 meeting along with the required public hearing. The Board has asked for more information from the Scarsdale Tax Assessor to be available for the January 26 meeting in order to fully understand the numbers involved.

During the public comment period, the BOE heard from two long-term resident veterans. Mr. Martin Molot of Lincoln Road wanted to make sure that as the BOE weighed the additional tax burden to non-veterans it took into account the fact that the overall tax base in Scarsdale is increasing as a result of the large amount of new construction.

Mr. Newton Schiller of Lee Road said he attended the meeting to make sure that the BOE took action on this item and thanked the Board for making decision to move forward.

Community members are urged to view this portion of the meeting on the BOE video on demand site as well as to review the supporting materials available with the January 12, 2015 meeting agenda and come to the next BOE meeting with questions and comments.