An increasing number of communities are joining New York State’s property tax exemption for veterans who are 100% service disabled, but not all towns are opting in like Erie County and the City of Buffalo.
Air Force veteran Garrett Sokolowski hopes more towns in the region follow suit of Erie County and opt in to pass the exemption soon.
“A lot of them worse off than myself, whether it be PTSD or loss of limbs, where they shouldn't have to pay an extreme amount of funds out of their pocket when they should be the ones being taken care of," he said.
It’s unlikely his fellow veterans living in the Town of Amherst will have the municipal exemptions, even if they qualify.
Supporting veterans is a priority, but opting in would cost about $100 million from the town’s assessed value, Amherst Town Supervisor Shawn Lavin said in a written statement. The town’s 2027 budget already will exceed New York’s property tax cap, he added.
But several other communities have either passed the exemption or plan to soon.
Tonawanda approved the change at a local level about a month ago. While it’s an easy decision for him, some smaller towns in the region might have more questions to consider, Tonawanda Town Supervisor John Flynn said.
“I'm not going to minimize it for a smaller town, okay. For a smaller town, you know, it may be a greater impact, all right? So, towns like that actually have to do the math," he said. "For bigger towns, like me and the City of Buffalo, obviously it's spread around much more, so it’s not that much of an impact.”
Hamburg Town Councilmember Dan Kozub expects Hamburg to opt-in during Monday’s council meeting.
“Some of them can't work. That's the unemployability. So, they get whatever the government gives them, and they have to live on that," he said. "So, I think by giving a tax break to these people, they'll still have to pay some fees … but for the most part, they'll have a tax break and be able to live a good life.”
The property tax exemption is a first step, but expanding it in the future to include options like road tolls or car registrations would be a valuable resource, Sokolowski added.
