Hadley-Luzerne Central School District has approved a full property-tax exemption for veterans with a 100% service-connected disability, a move that will eliminate school taxes entirely for qualifying households starting with the 2027-28 school year. Jeff Trotter estimated that 17 to 20 households across the five towns the district serves could qualify, while Superintendent Burgess Ovitt estimated other taxpayers may see a modest bump of $5 to $7 based on assessment valuations.
The school board’s action, taken at its October meeting, came after months of advocacy from Jeff Trotter, a retired Air Force veteran and former Hadley supervisor, who first pitched the idea to the board in August, according to The Post-Star. Trotter also brought similar proposals to the Town of Lake Luzerne and Warren County, per the same report. He called the eligibility bar for the exemption “very high,” and said the veterans who clear it “deserve” the break.
Superintendent Burgess Ovitt said eligible veterans must be rated 100% disabled and unemployable to qualify, and that those who meet the threshold will owe no school taxes at all. Jeff Trotter said he was pleasantly surprised by the board’s action and thankful for the veterans who will benefit. Notably, the district had declined to opt into a partial veterans exemption the state offered the previous year before ultimately embracing the full version now codified under Section 458-a of New York’s Real Property Tax Law.
Hadley-Luzerne’s Early-Adopter Status
The New York State Department of Veterans’ Services currently lists Hadley-Luzerne as the only school district in the state registered as having approved the full 100% disabled veterans exemption, making it an early adopter among public school systems statewide. The district joins a short but growing list of local governments that have already acted, including the Town of White Creek and the Town of Saratoga Springs, both of which have adopted similar exemptions, while the Saratoga County Board of Supervisors passed a measure covering the county portion of eligible veterans’ property taxes.
Several counties and municipalities around the state have explored waiving property taxes for veterans who meet the permanent-and-total-disability standard tied to military service, though adoption remains uneven. Not every community has moved as quickly as Hadley-Luzerne. As Buffalo Toronto Public Media reported, an increasing number of communities are joining the program statewide, but plenty of towns still have not signed on. That outlet noted Erie County and the City of Buffalo have already opted in, and that Tonawanda approved its own version roughly a month before that mid-October report.
Warren County and Queensbury Still Deciding
Closer to home, the Warren County Board of Supervisors plans to vote on whether to opt into the program at its meeting on Nov. 20, and the Town of Queensbury is also weighing whether to join. Those decisions would sit alongside, not replace, the school district’s own action, since counties, towns, villages and school districts each have the independent option to offer the exemption under state tax guidance.
The pattern of layered, separate decisions is not unique to Warren County. In Saratoga County, officials have noted that even after the county adopts its own exemption, individual towns, cities and school districts still have to decide on their own whether to extend the same benefit, according to the Daily Gazette. Saratoga County’s proposed exemption, that outlet reported, would not even take effect until county property taxes levied beginning in 2028.
Who Picks Up the Difference
Because the exemption removes qualifying veterans’ properties from the tax rolls, the remaining levy gets redistributed among everyone else who pays. WHEC reported that the shift means other taxpayers generally pay a little more, even as the change can be revenue-neutral overall for the taxing jurisdiction. That outlet also found many local counties, towns and school districts statewide were still deciding whether to offer the exemption at all.
Monroe County and the towns of Irondequoit, Pittsford and Greece have already opted in, per the WHEC report, with Greece’s town supervisor estimating the exemption would help between 300 and 350 disabled veterans there alone — a scale far larger than the 15 to 20 households Trotter projected for the Hadley-Luzerne district. Not every community finds the math easy: in the Buffalo area, Amherst officials said opting in would cost the town about $100 million from its assessed value, according to Buffalo Toronto Public Media.
For now, Hadley-Luzerne veterans who believe they meet the 100% disabled and unemployable standard can consult the New York State Department of Veterans’ Services page on veterans’ property-tax exemptions. The New York State Department of Taxation and Finance advises eligible veterans to ask their local assessor or municipal clerk and describes the exemption as covering property taxes, special ad valorem levies and special assessments for those who qualify under Real Property Tax Law Section 458-a.
