The evening of 2022-09-15 was a Public Hearing on Certain Property Tax Exemptions for the Honeoye Falls-Lima Board of Education (BoE).
About half the meeting was Bruce (Business) explaining the exemptions, and potential financial impact. The other half was people commenting. Fair warning, all numbers below are estimates, which I rounded to simplify. Actual numbers will certainly vary, hopefully not by enough for it to matter.
The Senior citizen and disability exemption would add ~$7 to the tax bills for those not receiving this exemption. The Veterans Exemptions would add ~$37 to the tax bills for those not receiving this exemption. The First Responders Exemptions would add ~$3 to the tax bills for those not receiving this exemption. If all were applied, that would add ~$47 to the tax bills of those not receiving any exemptions. Again, numbers are estimates, if/when actually applied your mileage may vary.
I believe Senior citizen, Disability, and Veterans exemptions are currently in effect, while First Responders Exemptions are not. But as the BoE has the option of changing their mind at anytime, the current situation could always be different next year. Although there is a March 1 deadline to decide for any given year.
Most of the comments were what you would expect, representatives of those benefited by the exemptions spoke in favor of them. Although there was one thing I heard that stood out.
As you might expect, some people move based on where they can get exemptions. Noted by one of the veterans, who pointed out that locations with exemptions don’t always overlap with locations with veterans groups, which leads to an increase in suicide rates (to paraphrase). Not something I expected to hear, but does make sense in retrospect. We all have social needs, and having others with shared experiences help us through hard times.
I did have the realization that the school district, as it is exempt from paying property taxes, receives all the benefits of first responders, while avoiding any of the costs. To be fair, anything the district did pay would come from the taxpayers in the end. But it made for an interesting perspective. Those who don’t pay, decide who to offer discounts on their payments.
And as stated previously, I think this comes down to a value judgment on a question. Is equal treatment under the law more or less important then supporting those in need/who help us? Both have value, but to offer exemptions one has to be more important (at least under the details of that exact situation).
Which is why I would favor some other way of assisting these groups, one that didn’t muddle the tax system. Unfortunately, that is not the question on the table.
And those are my Observations From Audience Land for the September 15, 2022 meeting of the Honeoye Falls-Lima Board of Education.
Agenda’s and similar information can be found at HFL’s BoardDocs page. While a recording will likely be available soon.