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Veteran urges borough to revisit retroactive property-tax exemption; council cites fiscal limits
Summary
A 100% disabled veteran and veterans-committee chair asked the council to change the borough ordinance to grant retroactive property-tax exemptions to the VA determination date; councilors cited current ordinance language, municipal budget constraints, and recommended closed-session review and coordination with state bill A941.
Fred Pugliese, a 30-year resident and longtime veterans-advisory-committee chair, told the council he was declared 100% disabled by the state veterans affairs office and urged Old Tappan to revisit its local ordinance so the property-tax exemption would be backdated to the VA determination date.
"...when I read further about this, [the state] left a decision up to each town as to how far they were on a backdate," Pugliese said, noting that some New Jersey municipalities use a quarter-year (0.25) backdating policy and referring to Assembly Bill A941 and the senate counterpart. He asked the borough to consider a modest, year-of-award backdating for his case and to review the ordinance broadly to align with state developments.
Council members and staff explained the borough's current ordinance provisions that limit retroactive refunds to the remainder of the year in which an application is made and emphasized the fiscal impacts of refunding property taxes: "When we give a refund, we have to give a 100% [refund] and the county and the school don't contribute — it's all going to come from the local municipal budget," a council member said. The council agreed to take the matter up in closed session with counsel to better understand liabilities and to review ordinance language once the state bill progresses.
