Seriously disabled vets exempted from county property taxes

GREENE COUNTY―For more than 100 Greene County veterans with the most severe service-connected disabilities, county property taxes will soon be a thing of the past.

County legislators voted unanimously on Wednesday night to adopt the 100% exemption that would apply to a qualifying veteran’s primary residence and take effect with the 2027 assessment rolls.

Partial property tax breaks are nothing new for many veterans across New York. But now those who are deemed permanently and totally disabled by the United States Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) are eligible for a full exemption after Real Property Tax Law amendments were made in the last state budget.

However, the full exemption requires taxing jurisdictions like counties, towns and school districts to individually opt in.  

When originally proposed, the exemption was mandated for local taxing jurisdictions, Greene County Administrator Shaun Groden had explained.  

“But with the state budget adoption, it was converted to an ‘opt in’ exemption,” Groden said.

In Greene County, the impact on other taxpayers would be minimal, Raymond Ward, director of Greene County Real Property Tax Service, had told county legislators.

Ward calculated that around $417,736 would be reallocated to other taxpayers if all taxing jurisdictions in the county adopted the exemption. That includes $63,009 in county taxes, $62,400 in town taxes, $10,917 in village taxes, $38,082 in special district taxes, and $243,328 in school taxes.

There are approximately 114 veterans in all of Greene County who could be eligible for the exemption, according to Tyler Lynch, director of the Greene County Veterans Service Agency.

According to data compiled by Ward and sent out to local officials, the 114 veterans are those currently receiving the Alternate Veterans Exemption and who also have a 100% disability rating.

“At this time, we do not know whether all of these veterans have also been or will be classified as permanently and totally disabled by the United States Department of Veterans Affairs,” Ward had noted, adding that his tax impact analysis assumes that all 114 would be eligible for the new exemption.

The towns with the most potentially qualifying veterans include Catskill with 21, Cairo with 19, Greenville with 14, and New Baltimore with 16.

“So, there’s really not that many,” Lynch said. “But it's definitely a big help for some of these veterans who are completely disabled and could use the extra assistance.”