Scarsdale: Governor Signs Law to Allow Scarsdale to Remit Tax Penalties to Residents

Joanne Wallenstein

September 25, 2024

At long last – tax penalty relief should be coming to over 200 residents who say they never received their school tax bills last September. They missed the first installment of their school tax bills and were therefore assessed penalties for the late payments. See what happened here.

Though they were never announced the exact cause of the mail failure, the Village Trustees agreed to take steps to remit those penalties to those who missed the deadline for the first payment of the two-part process. However, since it is a matter of state law, it was necessary to introduce home rule legislation in both the NYS Assembly and the NYS Senate and once passed, have the law signed by Governor Kathy Hochul.

Now the Governor has signed the bill and here is a note from the Village explaining next steps:

On September 20, 2024, Governor Kathy Hochul signed Assembly Bill 9946 into law. This law now allows Scarsdale to provide taxpayer relief to specific residents who incurred penalties due to the USPS’s failure to deliver certain school tax bills.
As a reminder, the Scarsdale Town Board passed a home rule request in response to concerns from residents who had not received their school tax bills via USPS and consequently incurred school tax penalties. Over the summer, the corresponding bills were approved by both the Assembly and State Senate.

Next Steps: The law requires the Scarsdale Town Board to approve a process to refund the 2023-2024 real property school taxes to qualified residents. Approval of this application form will be the first item on the Town Board’s Agenda at its next meeting on October 8, 2024. Assuming the form is approved on October 8, it will be available for residents on our website on October 9. Once all necessary information is received, it is anticipated that refunds will be processed within 4-6 weeks.

The Village/Town of Scarsdale thanks Governor Hochul for signing this into law and Assemblywoman Paulin, and State Senator Mayer for making this possible.

Commenting on the news, Assemblywoman Paulin said, ““I was pleased to author a bill to help Scarsdale residents. I’ll always be responsive, legislatively or in any way I can, to help constituents and the community.”