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HomeMy WebLinkAbout04-30-2002 TOWN OF GROTON MINUTES OF SPECIAL TOWN BOARD MEETING – TUESDAY, APRIL 30, 2002 Those present: Glenn E. Morey, Supervisor Ellard L. Sovocool, Councilman Donald F. Scheffler, Councilman Sheldon C. Clark, Councilman Duane T. Randall II, Councilman Also present: April L. Scheffler, Arthur & Jane Freelove, Roy Banwell, Don & Evelyn Leidig Purpose of meeting was to discuss Senior, Veterans and Disabled exemptions pertaining to Real Property Taxes. Supervisor Morey asked if any of the Board Members could attend the Dryden School Meeting on the following night. The Grahams were also going to attend. Supervisor Morey – I also need some volunteers for Grievance Day. The Town Board members cannot be on the Grievance Day panel. Councilman Sovocool – Since when? Supervisor Morey – Since, doesn’t say, but in your packet you got today, it says the majority of the board must consist of members who are not officers or employees of the local government. Members of the appointing authority (e.g. Town Board) may not serve on the BAR. Clerk Scheffler – I talked to Jay Franklin when I got that in the mail and he said that was something new. It was decided that it would be a conflict of interest because the Town gets money from the assessments and that would present a conflict of interest. Councilman Randall – That last training I went to in Rochester, that was brought up there. Supervisor Morey – Since everybody is on the Board who was going to sit on it, you have to give me one member of the BAR and I will need it by this Friday. Thank you. Tonight we’re going to be talking a little bit about the exemption for the assessment roll. And basically, everybody’s got a handout of the exemption granted. Basically annual income is the maximum at up to $20,500.00 is a 50% of assessed value; $20,500.01-$21,500.00 is a 45% of assessed value; $21,500.0-$22,499.99 is a 40% of assessed value; $22,500.00-$23,499.99 is 35% of assessed value; $23,500.00-$24,399.99 is 30% of assessed value; $24,400.00-$25,299.99 is 25% of assessed value; $25,300.00-$26,199.99 is 20% of assessed value; $26,200.00-$27,099.99 2 Town Board Meeting Page April 30, 2002 is 15% of assessed value; $27,100.00-$27,999.99 is 10% of assessed value; $28,000.00 to $28,899.99 of 5% of assessed value. These are the maximum values. Councilman Sovocool – We’re at what now, $16,500.00? Supervisor Morey – Town of Groton is at $16,500.00. This was set back on January 12, 1994. If we look, you should have a copy from the assessment value. It says “this letter is to let you know the anticipated impacts of raising the income limits for the senior citizen real property exemption. I took a look at those properties that did receive the exemption for the 2001 Final Assessment Role. From these numbers, I applied what the current limits would allow for an exemption and compared it to what the maximum limit would allow for an exemption. For your information the maximum income allowed by law is now $28,900, which the Village of Groton has just decided to use. The total taxable value for all parcels receiving a senior exemption currently is approximately $6,546,625. If the income limit was raised to the maximum, the taxable value would fall to $5,336,255. This represents a loss of $1,210,730 in taxable value for town purposes.” (from Jay Franklin). My calculations are that since it goes down in taxable value, it takes off $1,200,000 in the assessment. My calculations are a loss of $8,886. Now, if you look, this will not come into effect until 2004. And what this would do is last year the total assessment of the Town of Groton increased $2,000,000, which is basically about $7,000. And I think within 2004 we could recover this $8,000 and then some. Councilman Sovocool – That’s by putting it at $20,500, that floating scale? Supervisor Morey – Yes, at the scale that I handed out to you tonight. Comments and questions? Councilman Sovocool – I think it’s a good idea to raise it up there. Councilman Scheffler – Tax breaks are always good, as long as we can afford to do it. Supervisor Morey – I think over the next two years that we can. I think that not only will we recover this but we’ll recover additional. Councilman Randall – Where’d you get the figure of $8,000? Supervisor Morey – $1,200,000 times 7.34 per thousand comes up to $8,800. These are only guesstimates. Councilman Randall – Okay. And are we going to be looking at Veterans exemptions? Supervisor Morey – We’re going to talk about that too. Also, if you recall the pamphlets Colleen gave you several months ago, there’s question and answers on senior citizens exemption and there’s also exemption for people with disabilities, okay? What the persons with disabilities, there’s 10 towns and villages and school districts in the County that do it, Town of Dryden, Town of Ithaca, Town of Caroline, Town of Ulysses, Town of Lansing is going to have the disabled exemption, Ithaca School System, Village of Trumansburg, and a couple others. I don’t know what the impact is going to be, in fact, the Assessment Office couldn’t tell me either. But it would follow the same scale as the senior citizens exemption would be. And also please note 3 Town Board Meeting Page April 30, 2002 that if the properties receive an exemption under the law, income senior citizens exemption, they cannot also receive an exemption under the law for the same municipal tax purpose. This is the same thing, except for the Star program. If you receive an exemption from one, you can’t receive an exemption for another. You only receive one exemption except for the Star. (Councilman Clark arrived at 7:12 PM) Now, going to the veterans, my proposal is to give a minimum of $1,500 assessment. That means if it’s a $100,000 assessed house, it would be assessed at $98,500 instead. So, the senior citizens exemption would be pretty close to being a sure thing. Disabled exemption is a guess and veterans exemption would not be very critical at all. Councilman Scheffler – You don’t have any figures on how many disabled are in Groton? You can’t get anything from the Census? Supervisor Morey – Nope. Councilman Randall – So, if someone is disabled, a veteran and senior citizen, they can get all three? Supervisor Morey – No, you can only have one exemption for property. If you are receiving an exemption for disability, that has no age limit, you cannot have the senior citizen or veteran. Councilman Sovocool – But you can still have the Star. Clerk Scheffler – Can’t you have the senior and veterans? Supervisor Morey – No. Clerk Scheffler – Some people already do. Supervisor Morey – We don’t have a veterans do we? Clerk Scheffler – The County does and they give both. Supervisor Morey – All right, then I misspoke. Clerk Scheffler – What kind of criteria are you going to have for disabled? Supervisor Morey – Well, let’s go over the senior citizens. Supervisor Morey then read the pamphlets concerning exemptions for senior citizens’ and persons with disabilities and limited incomes published by the New York State Board of Real Property Services, copies of which are available in the Town Clerk’s Office. When he finished there was a question from the public. Arthur Freelove – I don’t think any of us heard anything that you said there. If we had a paper, we could follow it. It’d help a lot. 4 Town Board Meeting Page April 30, 2002 Supervisor Morey – I apologize for that. Do we have any of these? Councilman Clark – You didn’t give us any of them either? Supervisor Morey – You got them two months ago, Sheldon, okay? You were supposed to read them. Clerk Scheffler – I could run some off, the copy machine is on. (She then left to do that.) Supervisor Morey – We’re going to run some copies off for you. You can get them at the County Assessment Office too. I apologize that we couldn’t do that. Meanwhile, April did make some copies for you from the Town Law Manual about the procedure for the adoption of a local law and what we have to do. What we’ll do is next month on May 14, we’ll make a motion to have a public hearing to present this to the public and if there’s no complaints about it we will pass the law. Lady in Audience – May I ask why it has to wait until the Year 2004? Supervisor Morey – It’s because of the law that states it. We missed 2003. We should have done this before March and we didn’t get around to it. So, it has to go for the additional year because it’s got to be on the books for a year before we can do it. Lady – It’s pretty rough for these veterans who are getting older every day. They haven’t had anything all these years. Supervisor Morey – That’s right, and I’m the first person that’s gone for the exemption for the veterans and actually expanding the exemption for the senior citizens and also adding additional disabilities exemptions. They’ve never been here in the Town. This has not been done since 1994. I was just made aware of it this year in January. We did not have time to push this through before March. I agree with you. Lady – I just think it’s just a shame that these veterans haven’t been recognized before. Supervisor Morey – And they are right now. Lady – Yeah, but many of them are gone even. Arthur Freelove – I’m 77 and I probably won’t live too long. Another Man – I’m 78. Lady – It’s just a shame. Supervisor Morey – I agree with you. Arthur Freelove – I have to go to the hospital tomorrow. I average about once every 2 months. 5 Town Board Meeting Page April 30, 2002 Lady – Don’s had heart attack and he’s had a hip replacement and you never know about his heart, when it’s going to act up again. It’s just a shame. It doesn’t seem quite fair. But if that’s the law, that’s the law. Arthur Freelove – The next time we have a war, they can go. Supervisor Morey – Do you understand that if I didn’t bring this to the Board it never would have gotten done? You know, this is what I am trying to do, to give something back to the people who helped this country, this town and village grow. Lady – I realize that. Supervisor Morey – But the Assessment Office is in Ithaca, okay, that’s what they do for us. We have to do this right so we don’t have to go back and change it later. Lady – And our village doesn’t do anything for our veterans either. It’s a shame. Clerk Scheffler returned and handed out copies of the brochures to the audience and Board Members. Supervisor Morey – All right does anyone else have questions? What do you think? Councilman Sovocool – I think we better put it on the agenda and get it passed. Councilman Scheffler – I agree with Louie. Councilman Clark – I’m with you. Councilman Sovocool – For seniors, disabled and veterans, all three. Supervisor Morey – Yes. Roy Banwell – I wondered about this income exemption here. Do you use this sliding scale? Supervisor Morey – Yes, we will. Roy Banwell – Is this all from last year or what? Supervisor Morey – This is the maximum allowable by law. Roy Banwell – That’s what you’re going by? Supervisor Morey – Yes. Roy Banwell – I wondered because I talked with the people over at the Assessment Bureau and they said that the Town of Groton had one of the lowest income eligibilities in the County. Supervisor Morey – That’s correct. That’s why we’re trying to change, Roy. We’re going to go to the maximum, from the minimum to the maximum. All right? I’m taking a $9,000 hit on our income for the Town to do this. I don’t know how much, what the factor is for the disabled 6 Town Board Meeting Page April 30, 2002 and I don’t know what it’s going to be for the veterans either. All right, I’m going to make up at least $9,000 in the taxes and it’s not going to come out of the residents’ pocket, it’s going to come out of the budget here within the Town Hall. April, you wanted to say something? Clerk Scheffler – Yes. I would just like to take a moment to thank the Board for appointing me as Town Clerk. I would also like to thank you for your sponsorship to the New York State Town Clerks Association Conference even though it meant closing my office almost immediately after my appointment. The classes were excellent and very informative and the entire experience invaluable. I sometimes wonder if I sound a little corny when I say that my job is to serve the people and do that in the best way that I can. But last week someone made a speech that said almost exactly those words, that we are Town Clerks because we love it and we do it to the best of our ability according to the law. Following that speech 500 Town Clerks from around the State stood, linked hands around the room and sang God Bless America. I was not the only person with tears in my eyes. And it was not at all corny. I came home with a renewed sense of pride in who I am as a Clerk, humility in the knowledge that we are all a part of something much larger than ourselves, and a desire to get down to the work at hand. I am very grateful to you, as the Board, for always making funds available to everyone here for education, seminars and conferences, that you encourage us all to attend and that you appreciate the value, not only to the individual, but the Town as well. Thank you. Supervisor Morey – Thank you, April. Councilman Sovocool – Thank you. Supervisor Morey – One quick reminder, for everybody, we’re going to have an open reception for Colleen Pierson, Sunday, May 5, 2002 from 2-4 PM here in the Town Hall. So, we’re going to have some cake and punch and coffee to celebrate the 25-plus years that Colleen served the community. So, I hope everybody will be there. I know the Board will be there. Okay, any other questions, comments? There being no further business, Councilman Sovocool moved to adjourn, seconded by Councilman Scheffler, at 7:40 PM. Unanimous. April L. Scheffler Town Clerk