Town Board discusses ethics, exemptions and electricity

By JEFF MORRIS 

The Town Board held public hearings on Tuesday, March 17, and dealt with a number of other matters.

Ethics Board

First, the board quickly passed an amendment to town code regarding the town’s Board of Ethics. The amendment overrides state law that required one of the five members of the Board of Ethics to be “a town official or employee.”

Bedford had not been following that requirement anyway, and Town Attorney Eric Gordon explained that towns have long overridden the requirement because most every issue that comes before a town ethics board involves a town employee or official, which means any such member would have to recuse themselves anyway. 

Passing the amendment legally cleaned up the existing practice.

Seniors tax exemption

A second public hearing proved to be more complicated. It dealt with an amendment to the senior citizens tax exemption to align with changes made by the state this year.

Town Assessor Harold Girdlestone explained the changes that were proposed. He said currently, the town allows the maximum exemption under state law: seniors, 65 or older,  making under $50,000 can take 50% off the real property taxes on their primary residence. There is also a sliding scale going up to $58,400, “so if you make just under that, $58,399, you get 5%,” said Girdlestone.

Under Option 1 of the proposed amendment, beginning with the 2026 assessment roll, the town may grant, at local option, up to a 65% exemption. Girdlestone said this change has not been adopted for county or school taxes this year. There would also be a new sliding scale, with the 65% exemption for taxpayers earning less than $47,000 to a minimum 50% exemption for property owners making at least $49,000 but less than $50,000.

Option 2 would include IRAs in total income under the calculation for eligibility.

The board debated whether to include IRA income, and ultimately decided it would be unfair to taxpayers who were counting on it not being included in their income for this year. Girdlestone said IRA inclusion had not been adopted by any other municipalities.

The board will look into adjustments to calculations for the inclusion of IRA income. In the meantime, they approved amending the proposed law to include the IRA calculations beginning in 2027 rather than 2026. Because of the change in the proposal, the public hearing will be continued to the April 7 board meeting.

Dealing with Con Edison and NYSEG

The board passed two resolutions related to electricity suppliers.

It authorized the hiring of Joel R. Dichter as special counsel to represent participating Westchester municipalities of the Westchester Municipal Consortium to monitor the approved New York State Public Service Commission settlement with Con Edison.

Dichter had represented the consortium in the rate case, and though that case has ended, the WMC has an interest in continuing to monitor ConEd.

The town agreed to contribute $1,000. While other participating municipalities are contributing more, Bedford has a much lower percentage of ConEd customers than do the others.

The board also approved a resolution opposing NYSEG’s proposed rate increase.

In the resolution, read aloud by board member Tom Catoliato, the board implored “Gov. Hochul, New York State Public Service Commission and our legislators in Albany to rein in NYSEG’s proposed rate hikes to protect ratepayers.” 

It also requested that Hochul, the legislators, the PSC and NYSEG/Avangrid “make ratepayer protection their highest priority and consider alternative solutions to rate increases to address the challenges of transmission and distribution of electricity.”