Herricks Board of Education trustees said they last week they would like to grant partial property tax exemptions to military veterans, but first need to know more how to do it and what it would cost district taxpayers.
The board delayed action at last Thursday night’s meeting on a proposal to grant the exemptions based on a recently enacted New York State law until those questions were answered.
“We’re in a little bit of a quandary here,” said Herricks school board President Jim Gounaris after declaring the board’s support for the exemptions.
Gounaris said the law approved by the state Legislature does not provide a way for school districts to opt out of granting the tax exemptions once they are implemented as municipalities are able to do – something he said the Legislature is looking to correct.
Herricks Assistant Superintendent for Business Helen Costigan said the Nassau County Assessor’s Office informed the district last week that the list the county recently provided of veterans and their survivors who are eligible for the tax exemptions may be incorrect.
“Unfortunately the people providing the data can’t indicate who’s qualified or not,” Gounaris said.
The state currently suggests schools offer a 15 percent exemption for all military veterans with an additional 10 percent for those who served in combat. The state recommends an additional 50 percent exemption for veterans disabled as a result of their military service.
Based on information from the assessor’s office, Costigan said at the Feb. 27 board meeting that 632 veterans or their survivors would be eligible for $154,134 in property tax exemptions if the board followed the state guidelines in granting the exemptions.
Trustee Brian Hassan said he did not want to approve the exemptions if the board could not withdraw them in the future.
“Now if we make a bad decision that we find we can’t get out of, it boxes us into a corner,” Hassan said.
The state imposed a March 14 deadline for school districts and municipalities to enact the exemptions for them to take effect this year.
Trustee Christine Turner said the state should extend the deadline.
Turner suggested the board write letters to Gov. Andrew Cuomo, state Sen. Jack Martins (R-Mineola) and state Assemblywoman Michelle Schimel (D-Great Neck) to indicate the Herricks board’s support for extending the deadline, which was backed by other trustees.
“I just think we need more information,” she said.
Herricks resident Roger Cooper objected to the board approving the veteran tax exemptions, calling it “an inappropriate form of exemption for a special-interest group.”
The school board also agreed to amend the allocation of money from a $350,000 reserve fund previously earmarked to cover property tax appeals.
On Costigan’s recommendation, $194,000 of the $350,000 will be used to resurface basketball courts at the Denton Avenue and Center Street schools and address district technology needs. She said the expenditures will be added to the 2013-14 budget with resurfacing work to be done sometime in the spring or summer.
An additional $80,000 for playground equipment and playground resurfacing at the Searingtown School will be added to the 2014-15 budget, along with an additional $137,000 needed for district technology equipment. Costigan said the balance of $156,000 from the $350,000 tax appeal reserve, which has been transferred to the general fund, will be used to cover those costs.
The expenditures had to be split between the two budgets because the board could not add to equipment lines in the 2013-14 budget, she said.
At the Feb. 27 meeting, the board had originally decided to commit the $350,000 to all three playground upgrades and $110,000 of the technology upgrade.
As Hassan suggested at that meeting, $61,000 will be taken from $543,000 in additional funds for the district’s projected $107 million 2014-15 budget for the balance of the district’s technology needs, primarily bandwidth upgrades.
The $543,000 in funds not initially anticipated includes $422,000 in state aid, lower than expected health-insurance rates and lower-than-expected BOCES administrative costs the district is required to pay.
Gounaris said the board plans to use the remaining $482,000 from the $543,000 to add four teaching positions in the district’s elementary schools, which would end three years of layoffs and program cutbacks for the district.
“We’re going to use that money to hire personnel to alleviate class sizes,” he said.
The playground projects were to be included in a proposed $3.5 bond that will be presented to voters May 20 at the same time as the school district election if money was left over from other projects that will be covered by the bond.
The proposed bond include $1.73 million for a new roof at the middle school and $700,000 for the replacement of boilers, according to Costigan.
The Denton Avenue School roof also would be replaced for a projected $146,000.
The $3.5 million bond was also originally to cover the school district’s projected $176,000 technology infrastructure upgrade. With that money coming from the tax appeal reserve and the additional budget funds, money from the bond will be applied to replace some of the windows in Herricks High School’s interior courtyard.
