Tusten continues 2020 property tax exemptions

By LINDA DROLLINGER
Posted 1/6/21

NARROWSBURG, NY — At its December 29 year-end meeting, the Tusten Town Board balanced its budget by shifting money from one account to another. Departments with increased spending were offset …

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Tusten continues 2020 property tax exemptions

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NARROWSBURG, NY — At its December 29 year-end meeting, the Tusten Town Board balanced its budget by shifting money from one account to another. Departments with increased spending were offset by those experiencing decreases.

The board also made two appointments ahead of its January 5 reorganization meeting: Susan F. Schott was reappointed to the Town of Tusten Board of Assessment Review, a three-member panel that oversees real property tax grievances, and Karen Valenti was reappointed as that board’s secretary for the unexpired term ending September 30, 2025.

In other real property tax developments, the board voted to extend real property tax exemptions granted in 2020 into 2021, so that property owners will not have to visit the assessor’s office to file renewal applications during a pandemic year. The board’s vote was a formal endorsement of New York State Executive Order 202.83, a continuance of Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s March 7, 2020 Executive Order 202, which provides for temporary suspension and modification of laws relating to the coronavirus disaster emergency declared on that date.

A notable exception to that rule will be 2020 exemptions granted on properties that have since changed hands. The order is currently effective through Sunday, January 17. For more information on the executive order, see www.bit.ly/cuomo202.

In an unusual move, the board also voted to provide employer-sponsored health insurance to code enforcement officer (CEO) Jim Crowley, a benefit previously unavailable to holders of that part-time position. Supervisor Ben Johnson said Crowley has received an offer of employment from a neighboring town that would include health insurance as part of its benefits package.

Noting that, “It’s not easy to replace a CEO,” deputy supervisor Jane Luchsinger recommended that Tusten match the other town’s benefits offer. Councilperson Jill Behling Padua agreed, as did the rest of the board. Crowley recently accepted an offer of employment from the Town of Cochecton to serve as its part-time CEO, following retirement on Christmas Day of longtime Cochecton CEO Greg Semenetz. Semenetz had served both the towns of Cochecton and Bethel as part-time CEO, an arrangement that Crowley will presumably follow with part-time service to both Tusten and Cochecton.

As the board took questions from the public, Johnson asked about progress on the culvert project. Luchsinger said it is temporarily on hold, pending receipt of a letter from New York’s State Historic Preservation Office regarding an archeological study that must be completed before the project can resume. “I haven’t seen it yet. Have you?” she asked Johnson and town clerk Crystal Weston. When they responded, “No,” Luchsinger said the delay could be due to the post office’s well-known pandemic dysfunction.

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