NORTH TONAWANDA — Cold War veterans got the property tax breaks they had asked for, but wartime vets were still pleading their case Tuesday before the Common Council.
The Council approved tax exemptions for Cold War veterans — those who served in the military from 1945 to 1991 but didn’t see action. About 50 Cold War veterans have so far applied for the exemptions, which allow for 10 percent reductions in the assessed value of their properties. The average property assessment in North Tonawanda is $100,000.
Wartime veterans showed up in strength for a second time asking that the ceiling on their property tax exemptions be increased to $120,000, a $40,000 hike over the current ceiling.
As before, when the wartime veterans went to the Council more than a month ago, no action was taken on the matter. Some Council members expressed their support for the increased exemption, notably Alderman Dennis Pasiak, a disabled Korean War veteran whose father, uncles and two sons all served in the military.
The maximum property tax exemption for veterans in North Tonawanda is currently $80,000, and the request for the $120,000 ceiling wouldn’t take effect until 2010.
North Tonawanda lags far behind neighboring communities, said Tom Konopka, a Vietnam veteran and a director of Western New York Chapter 77, Vietnam Veterans of America.
The tax ceiling for wartime veterans’ exemptions in Amherst is $240,000, with the City of Tonawanda setting it at $140,000. The mayor of Tonawanda is Ron Pilozzi, a wounded Vietnam veteran who was awarded a Purple Heart.
“We’re not going away,” vowed Konopka, who was at the Council meeting with several other wartime veterans. “We’re going to keep pushing for this. We fought for it and we earned it.”
Konopka added that the local Vietnam veterans chapter does a lot for the community, including funding scholarships for high school seniors and running a food pantry for needy families. The scholarship is in memory of Sgt. Peter Tycz, the first Western New Yorker to be killed in Afghanistan.
The show of force of the local veterans coincided with the Council’s welcome home to Robert Ortt, a National Guardsman who has just returned from a year’s tour of duty in Afghanistan.
The 29-year-old North Tonawanda resident will take up new duties March 1 as the city’s treasurer/clerk, a position that combines two jobs, since the post of city clerk will be eliminated Feb. 27.
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