Susan Cooper, a 68-year-old art therapist who has lived in her Hastings-on-Hudson home since 1998, was heartened when she learned of the state’s most generous property tax exemption, which can cut one’s property’s assessment by as much as 50%.

It looked promising for Cooper, who earns $50,000 a year at the White Plains Hospital’s Center for Cancer Care, and creates dramatic large-scale paintings in the studio behind her Warburton Avenue home.

But to get the full bang for the exemption buck, all of her taxing jurisdictions needed to approve the increase in the program's income limit.

Acting to help seniors like her was Westchester County, the town of Greenburgh and the village of Hastings-on-Hudson. Those actions cut her property tax bill by $5,300 to about $13,000. But the Hastings-on-Hudson schools, like 29 other districts in the lower Hudson Valley, have so far declined to do so.

Under current limits, Cooper does not qualify for the exemption, which provides a 50% reduction for those with incomes of $29,000, with reduced levels of exemption up to $37,800. She wants Hastings to do what Westchester, Greenburgh and the village have done: increase the limits to $50,000 for the 50% reduction, with savings declining to 5% up to $58,400.

Volunteers: 10% tax break option available for volunteer firefighters

Doing so would lower her tax bill by an additional $5,900, to a more manageable $7,000 a year. Cooper said she has made no headway with the school district, following emails, phone calls and finally, speaking before the school board in June.

“As I was completing my comments to the Board of Education in June, I was told. ‘Your time is up,’ “ she said. “I guess that was the answer to my question: My time is up in Hastings-on-Hudson.”

Hastings-on-Hudson school board Vice President Doreen Bucher said time ran out earlier this year to address the issue before the tax rolls were made final. Now the district's business official, Maureen Caraballo, will conduct a financial analysis to determine the exemption's impact if the income limit gets raised.

The previous income limit, established in 2009, ranged from $29,000 to $37,400.

"There was a short turnaround for the 2023 tax year, and they didn't have enough information to vote on it," Caraballo said.

Seniors: Property tax exemption limits rise in 2022

The Hastings-on-Hudson school district was not alone.

A Tax Watch investigation found that among 129 municipalities and school districts in Westchester, Putnam and Rockland counties, just 55% had increased the income limit to provide assistance to its low-income homeowners ages 65 and older. School districts, which can be responsible for as much 75% of one’s property tax bill, have moved much slower than municipalities. Hastings is among 30 of 52 in the three counties that have yet to raise the income limits.

Municipalities do more for seniors

Meanwhile, 52 of 79 municipalities have raised the limit. That includes Mount Vernon, but that city only raised the top limit to $37,400.

All three county governments raised the income limit. In Putnam County and six of its nine municipalities, the higher limit will be phased in over three years.

The outlier in Putnam is the county’s Democratic stronghold of Phillipstown, where the town of Phillipstown and villages of Cold Spring and Nelsonville have yet to act. The same goes for the town's Haldane school district.

Brian Kenney, who serves as assessor in Philipstown and lives there, said he advised the town board not to vote on increasing the limit. He noted that low-income seniors also qualify for the Enhanced STAR exemption, a state-financed benefit, which provided school tax savings of $1,814 there in 2022.

“I understand that seniors and everybody needs a break,” said Kenny , also the assessor in Orangetown. “But who is paying for it? It’s you and me and the rest of the working people. They have to subsidize it. The seniors are already getting Enhanced STAR and IRA benefits. They are retired. They can go to Florida if they don’t like it.”

Schools boards association wants funding, not tax shift

The New York State School Boards Association says its unfair to make the school board responsible for determining who gets a tax break in their community. The state provides no funding for the exemption, which means that every dollar in taxes saved by a senior citizen must be picked up by the jurisdiction’s remaining taxpayers.

Karen Belanger, executive director of the Westchester-Putnam School Boards Association and a former Rye City school board member, said it was wrong for the state Legislature to enact exemptions for senior citizens, volunteer firefighters and veterans, but then decline to fund the exemptions.

That leaves it up to school boards to decide who receives favored treatment, at the behest of the district’s other taxpayers.

“All the rest of us end up paying for it,” Belanger said. “As a school board member, I didn’t feel it was my place to decide who pays more and who pays less.”

State Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins, D-Yonkers, noted New York provided record increases in state aid in 2023-24, with Hastings-on-Hudson district seeing an increase of 23% − up $1.6 million. She said the program addresses the struggles of New York retirees trying to remain in their hometowns.

"We passed this legislation because we understood the affordability crisis our seniors are facing," she said. "This legislation simply increases the number of seniors eligible for this existing program. Since we took the majority, we have provided record school funding to districts across New York state and this legislation give localities the option to pass those savings on to this vulnerable population."

School districts have also had to act on a new exemption for volunteer firefighters and EMS workers, who can receive a 10% assessment reduction if allowed by the taxing jurisdiction. There's an increased exemption for veterans as well.

Belanger noted that local veterans have been quite vocal in urging adoption of the tax exemption of the volunteers. Seniors, however, have been less active in lobbying for adoption.

“The school boards may not be aware of the senior exemption issue,” she said.

AARP New York, the state’s preeminent lobbying group for senior citizens, has not been involved in the issue, said spokesman Erik Kriss.

Susan Cooper is still waiting for the Hastings-on-Hudson schools to lend a hand so she can remain in the village. She’s still working and painting, and hoping to stick around in southern Westchester.

“They say they want diversity, which should include people of differing income levels,” she said. “Hastings needs to walk the walk instead of talking the talk. When you are a senior, it would be great to stay in the community where you’ve lived for so long.”

Westchester school districts

Increased senior exemption income-limit to $58,400: Dobbs Ferry, Edgemont, Greenburgh, Irvington, Katonah-Lewisboro, Mamaroneck, North Salem, Pelham, Pocantico Hills, Port Chester, Scarsdale, Tarrytown and Yonkers.

Did not increase the income-limit to $58,400: Ardsley, Bedford, Blind Brook, Briarcliff Manor, Bronxville, Byram Hills, Chappaqua, Croton-Harmon, Eastchester, Elmsford, Harrison, Hastings-on-Hudson, Hendrick Hudson, Lakeland, Mount Vernon (only raised to $37,400), New Rochelle, Ossining, Peekskill, Rye City, Rye Neck, Somers, Tuckahoe, Valhalla, White Plains, Yorktown.

Westchester municipalities

Increased the senior income limit: Ardsley, Bedford, Croton-on-Hudson, Dobbs Ferry, Elmsford, Greenburgh, Hastings-on-Hudson, Irvington, Larchmont, Lewisboro, Mamaroneck town and village, Mount Pleasant, Mount Vernon (to $37,400), New Castle, New Rochelle, North Castle, North Salem, Ossining town and village, Pelham town and village, Pelham Manor, Pleasantville, Pound Ridge, Rye town, Scarsdale, Sleepy Hollow, Tarrytown, Yonkers, Yorktown.

Did not increase the income limit: Briarcliff Manor, Bronxville, Buchanan, Cortlandt, Eastchester, Harrison, Mount Kisco, Port Chester, Rye Brook, Rye City, Somers, Tuckahoe.

Putnam schools and municipalities

School districts that raised the income level: Brewster, Garrison, Mahopac.

Did not raise the income level: Carmel, Haldane, Putnam Valley.

Putnam municipalities that raised income limit over three years: Brewster, Carmel, Kent, Putnam Valley, Southeast.

Did not raise the income limit: Cold Spring, Nelsonville, Philipstown.

Rockland schools and municipalities

School districts that raised the income limit:  Clarkstown, Nanuet (to $43,400), Nyack, North Rockland, Pearl River, South Orangetown.

Did not raise the income limit: East Ramapo, Suffern.

Municipalities that raised the income limit: Airmont, Chestnut Ridge, Clarkstown, Haverstraw town, Montebello, New Square, Pomona, Orangetown Ramapo, Spring Valley, Stony Point, Suffern, Wesley Hills, West Haverstraw.

Did not raise the income limit:  Grandview, Haverstraw village, Hillburn, Kaser, New Hempstead, Nyack, Piermont,  Sloatsberg, Upper Nyack.

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David McKay Wilson writes about tax issues and government accountability. Follow him on Twitter @davidmckay415 or email him at dwilson3@lohud.com.

This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: Hudson Valley schools slow to enact savings for low-income seniors