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Mostly Cloudy Lynbrook school's likely to OK Gold Star Exemption
No plans yet for veteran property tax allowance
School taxes in Lynbrook may be increasing by a few cents as a way to help families who have lost a loved one in combat.
At its regular October meeting, the Lynbrook Board of Education announced that it would vote next month whether to allow the school district’s one Gold Star family to receive a school tax exemption — similar to the veterans’ exemption, which the Board of Education voted against adopting in March.
“I think this is definitely something we should do,” Trustee William Belmont said. “This is a good idea and good opportunity for us to do the right thing.”
A Gold Star family is one that has lost a son or daughter in active combat as a member of the U.S. Armed Forces. As part of the proposal, a family would receive a $20,000 reduction in the assessed value of their property, with the cost of their resulting reduction in taxes spread among the other 4,945 homeowners in the district. A Gold Star home, assessed at the Lynbrook average market value of $357,200, would see a reduction of $503 in its annual school tax bill, while other homes would average a 10 cent rise in taxes.
The school board had the option to modify the exemption, but chose instead to put it to a vote, using the same amount as the standard veterans’ exemption. The board could have raised the exemption to as high as 4½ times the standard, or $90,000, meaning that the average tax rise for other homes would be 45 cents, or cut it in half, which would raise taxes by an average of just 5 cents per homeowner.
The board voted against the veterans’ exemption in March, which extends a discount to anyone who has served in the Armed Forces, because, trustees said, they were concerned about shifting the tax burden to non-qualifying families. The decision was met with outrage by many veterans in Lynbrook and surrounding communities.
Dr. Paul Lynch, the district’s assistant superintendent for finance, operations and information systems, who presented the proposal to create a Gold Star exemption to the board in October, said that the veterans’ exemption has not been added to any board agenda. “I don’t know if they are planning to discuss the veterans’ exemption at a later time,” Lynch said.
