Vol. 36, No. 17 3 WEDNESDAY, APRIL 25, 2018
3
ONE DOLLAR
Bushmen
take on The Dukes
and cancer
Page 40
w w w .W a l l k i l l V a l l e y T i m e s . n e t
Shawangunk seeks to nullify solar exemptions
Valley
Central cuts
one position
to get under
tax cap
By TED REMSNYDER
Two weeks after passing legislation to
regulate solar panels and farms in the
town, the Shawangunk board introduced
a second bill at its April 19 meeting
that would eliminate the property tax
exemption for solar installations in
the municipality. The local law, which
will have a public hearing on May 3,
would nullify the 15-year tax exemption
for energy systems under the NYS Real
Property Tax Law.
The proposed law states that it is
in the best interest of the town and its
By TED REMSNYDER
taxpayers to “Assess, levy and collect all
taxes for the full value of such systems as
determined by the assessor for the town
in his or her sole discretion.”
The law would cover all solar
installations, and would allow the town
to collect revenues from companies
establishing solar sites in Shawangunk.
“The large solar farms won’t be tax
exempt, they’ll be paying taxes,” Town
Supervisor John Valk said of the proposed
law. “It’s a commercial operation. The
assessor doesn’t feel that it will impact
the local homeowner, because he feels
that the solar unit on the roof sometimes
decreases the value of the house because
of the extra work of putting a new roof
on and such. We won’t have to negotiate a
pilot agreement with the solar companies,
it’ll be assessed like anything else.
That’ll be between the assessor and the
companies, and the board will be out of
the equation.”
The town does not want to negatively
impact homeowners who are installing
small-scale solar units on their roofs or
in their backyards with the new local law,
a concern that was raised at the board’s
April 5 meeting by Town Councilman
Continued on page 6
E arth D ay C leanup
The Valley Central Board of Education
approved a proposed 2018-2019 budget of
$104,203,711 at its meeting on Thursday
night, and now voters will render the
final verdict on May 15 for a spending
plan that includes a 4.09 percent tax
levy increase. The proposed budget is
under the 4.26 percent tax levy limit, as
the board decided to cut the proposed
addition of an Instructional Technology
Teacher that was included in the district’s
original plan.
The decision to remove the full-time
position with benefits from the budget
saved $100,563 from the administration’s
initial $104,304,274 proposal. The school
board approved the proposed budget by
a 5-2 margin, with Trustees Joe Bond,
Joseph Byrne, Sonia Lewis, Sarah
Messing and Melvin Wesenberg voting
in favor of the budget, while Board of
Education President Sheila Schwartz and
Trustee Brad Conklin voted against the
measure.
The proposed budget represents a
2.92 percent increase over last year’s
$101,247,326 spending plan, and the 4.09
percent tax levy increase is the highest
in the district since the 3.9 percent raise
Continued on page 4
Jaspreet Gill
Volunteers swept the Wallkill River of garbage, Saturday, during the annual river cleanup. Story, more photos on page 2.
SERVING CRAWFORD, GARDINER, MAYBROOK, MONTGOMERY, PINE BUSH, SHAWANGUNK, WALDEN AND WALLKILL