Gloak said his department recommended that municipalities use their “taxable status date” — Nassau County’s is Jan. 2 — as the deadline for school boards to opt in. Gloak stressed that this was only a recommendation.

“That’s not binding on the school districts,” Gloak said. “If they can work it out with the county that they want to opt in after that date, that’s fine.”

In most New York counties, local municipalities handle property assessments. Nassau and Tompkins County have the only county governments that assess property values. The taxable status date — the date on which assessors value the condition and ownership of property for taxation purposes — is March 1 for most towns and villages. Nassau’s Administrative Code, however, sets its taxable status date as Jan. 2.

In an email to the Herald last Tuesday, the Department of Taxation and Finance stated that it had discussed the matter with county officials to make clear that “our recommendation regarding adoption of the exemption prior to taxable status date is not binding, and whether the exemption could be offered this year is a local decision.” Davis nevertheless wrote in a later email that the county Department of Assessment would abide by the state Department of Taxation and Finance’s recommendation.

Veterans in Rockville Centre were angry when they heard the news. Mickey Clark, a past commander of the Rockville Centre American Legion and a former member of the Nassau County Veterans Service Agency said the school board did the right thing, but that the county messed things up.

“This is the county trying to push the veterans around,” Clark said. “And we’re not going to stand for it.”

Alex Costello contributed reporting for this story.