Publisher's summary
We reviewed 58 out of 765 (8 percent) agricultural, veterans and senior citizen exemptions, totaling $2.9 million, on properties with a total assessed value of $7.7 million. We found that 20 exemptions (34 percent), totaling $1.4 million, were not properly supported by adequate documentation to establish and/or maintain exemption eligibility. We reviewed 21 agricultural exemptions totaling $1.36 million on properties with assessed values of $3.6 million. Fourteen exemptions valued at $927,000 lacked one or more pieces of supporting documentation to verify eligibility. We also reviewed 22 veteran exemptions totaling $921,000 on properties with assessed values of approximately $2.5 million. Six exemptions totaling $480,000 lacked the required supporting documentation. Finally, we reviewed 15 senior citizen exemptions totaling $600,000 on properties with assessed values of $1.6 million and found that they were generally properly supported.
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Appendix C: OSC Comment on the Town’s Response
Note 1
We reviewed our audit findings with Town officials during audit fieldwork on
multiple occasions and asked for any additional supporting documentation to
address the exceptions we noted. However, none was provided at that time.
After receiving the Town’s response letter we phoned Town officials to inquire
about the additional documentation they included with the letter. The Assessor
stated they located this documentation in the property folders after the exit
conference. However, during the audit we reviewed the folders with the Assessor
and none of the documents were on file. The Chairperson of the Board of
Assessors indicated that the Assessor in charge of agriculture exemptions
who files these documents was on medical leave and the veteran exemption
documents were obtained from other State agencies after our exit conference. We
did not include the attachments with the additional documentation in the final audit
report as it contained confidential information.
We encourage Town officials to continue to ensure proper documentation is
obtained and maintained to ensure exemptions are properly supported.
8 Of f ic e of t he New York State Comptroller