Senior Tax Exemption Preserved

Putnam Valley's Town Board dodged a bullet. At last month's meeting, they approved a resolution that was supposed to support an increase in the tax exemption level allowed to certain seniors. Unfortunately, due to sloppy drafting, the resolution stated the opposite. The board unwittingly voted to authorize that the exemption be extended to seniors making more than $58,400, instead of those earning less than that amount. Whoops.

After the mistake was noticed, board member Christian Russo tried to get the board to schedule a second, emergency public hearing to put forward a new resolution with the correct language. He was concerned that time was of the essence because eligible seniors had to apply for the exemption by March 2nd, and if the mistake wasn't corrected he worried they might lose their opportunity to reduce their tax burden.

The town's new supervisor, Alison Jolicoeur, consulted with the town's new legal counsel, who gave assurances that this mistake wasn't a big problem because the overall intent of the legislation was clear. Jolicoeur alluded to the mistake as a typo.

Russo, who is running this fall for a position on the county legislature, reached out to the New York Association of Towns, which offers guidance to municipalities, for more legal clarity. In a statement that Russo read aloud at yesterday's special board meeting, he said, "They advised me that this is a substantive error, not a mere technical defect, and that it should be corrected immediately."

Since Jolicoeur had declined to schedule an emergency public hearing to get ahead of the March 2nd deadline, the Association of Towns said the only other remedy was for the town assessor to decide how to proceed. As luck would have it, at yesterday's special board meeting, Jolicoeur appointed the town's new assessor, John Wolham. After his appointment was confirmed, he went to the podium and assured everyone that he would adhere to the intent of the legislation, which was clearly to process exemptions for seniors with incomes below $58,400. He added that if he were to implement the exemptions the way the incorrect law allowed, "the board should rescind my hiring."

Russo's frustration with how this dicey situation was handled was clear from his statement: "This was correctable before the deadline. It should still be corrected formally." Other board members concurred that a new public hearing for the revised legislation should be scheduled in short order.

Crisis averted.

If you're not already a subscriber but would like to receive future stories, please click on the subscribe button at watchingputnamvalley.com and provide your email address. If you have ideas for future stories or want to provide feedback, please send an email to watchingputnamvalley@gmail.com.