Laws Passed

Tax Credits/Tax Relief

• Property owned by veteran organizations such as veteran post buildings are exempt from property taxes. Many of these veteran organizations rent space in their buildings to community, charitable, educational, and other organizations. However, sometimes the renting organization is not a tax exempt entity. Therefore the rental portion is subject to local property taxes. This legislation will permit municipalities to exempt veteran organizations from local property taxes including the rental portion (Ch. 243 of 2013).

Protecting Veterans

• In order to ensure that veterans have access to all the pertinent information necessary to successfully apply for benefits from the Department of Veterans Affairs, the legislature passed and the governor signed legislation which requires directors of county veterans service agencies to be accredited by the United States Department of Veterans Affairs (Ch. 198 of 2013).

Disabled Veterans Civil Service Credit

• In fall 2013, voters passed a constitutional amendment (section 6 of article 5), that would give additional Civil Service Credit for Veterans with Disabilities Certified Post-Appointment. This amendment will permit veterans who are certified disabled after having already received credit at one appointment or promotion, because of their status as veterans, to receive additional credit one more time after certification of their disability. After being certified disabled, a veteran would be entitled to an additional grant of credit equal to the difference between 10 and the number of points received at the initial appointment or promotion. This would bring the total additional points of civil service credit such a veteran can receive to 10 for either an appointment or a promotion.

Employment Help

• The Veterans Employment Act grants veterans the right to temporary appointments by state agencies, rather than using temporary employment service companies (Ch. 557 of 2014).

Legislation Currently Before the Assembly

Tax Credits/Tax Relief

• Assembly Bill 4098 (A.4098) - Establishes a returning veteran's tax credit for businesses that hire veterans with disabilities.

  Veterans across New York State are struggling to find employment in private sector industries hit hard by the recession. Unemployment among all veterans in New York is over 7 percent. Unemployment has reached a staggering 20 percent for veterans under the age of 30 who recently returned home from Iraq and Afghanistan. According to the Bureau of Labor statistics, a significant number of recently returned veterans have reported service-connected disabilities.

  Our servicemen and women put their lives on the line in defense of our country. We are therefore responsible for enhancing their economic opportunities to provide for themselves and for their families when they return home. This bill will achieve this by providing tax relief to businesses that hire returning and wounded veterans.

• Assembly Bill 8281 (A.8281) - Clears up language in the real property tax code to ensure all combat veterans who fought in Iraq and Afghanistan are getting the property tax breaks they're entitled to. This is a measure authored by Assemblymember Barrett.

  Recently the Attorney General brought to light that veterans from the post 9/11 wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have been wrongly denied a property tax exemption to which they are entitled due to unclear language in the real property tax code. Local tax officials across the state were subsequently unclear about the availability of this benefit and in some cases told veterans they were ineligible. This meant that families of New York veterans may be losing out on thousands of dollars a year.

  This bill amends the language of the real property tax law to specifically include combat veterans of the war in Afghanistan and the Second Iraq war, thus eliminating the confusion.