Residents ask Plattsburgh to raise senior exemption, review commercial property assessments

A public commenter at the May 15 Plattsburgh Common Council meeting urged the city to increase the senior‑citizen property‑tax exemption and to reassess commercial properties she said have not been updated in years.

"The city of Plattsburgh has not had a review or a change since 02/2006," the resident told the council, arguing the current senior exemption level, she said, is $26,000 and is outdated amid Social Security cost‑of‑living increases and rising health care costs. The speaker said New York state allows senior exemptions with income limits up to $50,000 for a 50 percent exemption and a sliding scale (the speaker cited an upper sliding scale figure of $58,000), and recommended applying a roll‑forward formula tied to the Social Security Administration’s cost‑of‑living adjustments to update the local exemption.

The resident described calculations she said would move the exemption to about $47,000 using the COLA roll‑forward and suggested restoring a $5,000 deduction for Medicare costs that the speaker said the city no longer allows. She told the council she reviewed more than 100 commercial properties and identified examples she described as underassessed, including a downtown commercial property she said was assessed at "$150,000 for all those years" from 2011 onward. The commenter said only 38 percent of Plattsburgh buildings are owner‑occupied and argued that an expanded senior exemption could be funded by bringing commercial assessments into alignment.

Denise Nephew (Ward 2) also addressed assessments and urged the council to reinstate the city assessment department, which she said was abolished in February 2018. "Please consider putting the city assessment department back," she told council members, saying she has seen her assessment rise five years in a row and that some neighboring apartments are assessed at significantly lower values.

Councilors did not take action on senior exemptions or an immediate reassessment plan during the May 15 meeting. Several budget‑ and assessment‑related items appeared on the agenda and were approved during the session, but no motion or referral to change the senior exemption or to restore the assessments office was recorded in the public comment period.

The claims about exemption amounts, deductible health‑care allowances, assessment practices and sample property assessments were presented by residents during public comment and were not verified in the meeting record; council members did not respond with a detailed policy update during the public‑comment period. Residents asked the council to consider the points during upcoming budget discussions this summer, when assessments and tax rates are typically reconciled with the municipal budget.