CORONAVIRUS (COVID-19) RESOURCE CENTER Read More
Add To Favorites

Veterans in the Mount Morris Central School District will see a savings of potentially hundreds of dollars on their property

Livingston County News - 2/15/2017

Veterans in the Mount Morris Central School District will see a savings of potentially hundreds of dollars on their property tax bills after the District's Board of Education approved a veterans' exemption.

The board approved an alternative veterans' exemption - one of three under consideration - that allows for exemptions of up to $6,000 for wartime service, $4,000 for combat veterans and $20,000 for disabled veterans. Multiple exemptions may be applied to a single property.

The exemption was approved unanimously on Feb. 8, with a 7-0 vote in favor of the exemption.

Within the Mount Morris district, which includes the towns of ..., there are 230 possible exemptions - 142 for wartime service, 60 for combat and 28 for disabled veterans.

While veterans will see savings on their school tax bill, other taxpayers will be making up revenue lost to the exempted funds. Unlike the STAR Property Tax Rebate, in which New York State picks up the loss of revenue for the district, under the veterans' exemption, the tax lost to the exemption is reallocated among other residents.

The school district expects a loss of $6,200 in STAR funds and will need to redistributed $37,323 in the tax levy to non-veterans. For a non-veteran living in Mount Morris in a home assessed at $65,000 this will lead to an increase of $19.44 in property tax, or 1.12 percent. Meanwhile, a veteran claiming exemptions of 25 percent for wartime service and combat and 40 percent for disability, living in a similarly assessed home would see a tax savings of $790.

The board also considered a basic exemption and a second alternative exemption. Those two options would have allowed for greater exemptions for veterans, but would have also seen a greater increase in the burden to residents.

The basic exemption would have set maximum exemptions of $12,000 for wartime service, $8,000 for combat veterans and $40,000 for disabled veterans. Under this plan, the district would have lost $14,186n in STAR funds and non-veterans would have had to replace $68,167 in the tax levy.

The second alternative exemption would have had the highest levels for veterans: $21,000 for wartime service, $14,000 for combat veterans and $70,000 for disabled veterans. This exemption would have seen a loss in STAR funds of $14,262, resulting in a tax levy redistribution of $75,731.

The board revisited the exemption after being approach by veterans who asked the board to take a new look at numbers that had previously been presented several years ago.

During the public hearing, veterans who would benefit from the exemption said they were concerned about a reduction in school programs and an additional cost to non-veterans taxpayers. The district assured speakers that students would not be affected and that the district would not operate with less funding. Another speaker, a non-veteran, was in favor of the exemptions.

The exemption will not change the district's tax levy. For the 2016-17 school year the levy is $4,132,873, an increase of 1.98 percent from the year before.