Tax Exemption Increases Proposed

Tax Exemption Increases Proposed for Low Income Elderly and Disabled Homeowners – Public Hearing 12/20/22 at 6pm

The Town Board considered a local law presented by Assessor Harry Girdlestone to help lower income senior citizens and disabled persons of limited means to pay less property taxes. A public hearing on the proposed law was set for 12/20/22 at 6pm.

The State recently increased maximum income limits that may be placed by towns like ours on resident property owners seeking exemption relief, but leaves the decision whether to adopt the increased limits to each taxing district. The County recently adopted the maximum allowable limits.

Since 2010, Bedford town code has provided a sliding scale of percentages for property tax exemption exemptions for seniors making between $29,000 and $37,399.99 annually (decreasing from a 50% to 5% exemption as income increases). Since 1998 the town code has provided a 50% tax exemption for persons with disabilities making $18,500 annually (also with a sliding scale of diminishing percentages as income increases up to $26,899.99). The Town Board proposes to raise the maximum eligible income for each of these exemptions to $50,000 with the sliding scale of reduced percentage up to a maximum income of $58,399.99. Given that the amounts have not been increased in many years, the Town Board expressed this is the appropriate action to put forward to update figures that have not been updated for a long time and to provide some relief to low income seniors and persons with disabilities in our community.