Important Message from Mayor Ken Wray
REGARDING VILLAGE TAXES:
Dear Residents,
The newly adopted Federal tax bill restricts Federal income tax deductions for local property taxes to $10,000. There have been many questions and press reports on the issue of prepaying property taxes. Yesterday, Governor Cuomo issued an Executive Order on Friday, December 22nd, to allow for prepayment of local taxes in certain cases. (Until then, prepayment of local taxes in NYS was not permitted.)
The question for Sleepy Hollow is: does Gov. Cuomo’s Executive Order apply to us and can we accept prepayment? Unfortunately, the answer is no.
Today, SH Treasurer Sara DiGiacomo and legal counsel Clinton Smith carefully reviewed the Governor’s Executive Order. Here are the two main reasons why prepayment does not apply to our Village.
1. The Governor's executive order applies to counties and towns, not to villages (and also does not apply to school districts). So we are (still) prohibited by State law from accepting prepayment.
2. Even if the executive order had included villages in a prepayment scenario, Sleepy Hollow could only accept pre-payments once the Board of Trustees has approved the Village’s next annual budget. We would have to approve a budget next week for fiscal year 2018-19. The Board cannot responsibly lock the Village into a budget in such a short period of time. Furthermore, NYS would have to provide Homestead and Non-Homestead allocation numbers (the levy) within the week before we could complete the process.
The Governor's executive order is meaningful for counties and towns in NYS that have a fiscal year that begins January 1 and who normally collect taxes in January. As you know, our fiscal year begins June 1. Gov. Cuomo and many in the NYS Congressional delegation understand the hurt that this Federal tax bill causes to the residents of New York; this executive order may alleviate the pain for some.
Sincerely,
Ken Wray
Mayor