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Letters policy Please send letters to the editor to the BlueStone Press by email at bluepress@aol. com or send to P.O. Box 149, Stone Ridge, NY 12484. Include your name, hometown and daytime phone number. Letters should be fewer than 500 words and may be edited for clarity, brevity and taste. Letters won't appear in consecutive editions from the same author. The BSP hopes that, in the spirit of community dialogue, readers and writers in the letters section are respectful of a diversity of viewpoints. We desire considered opinions on issues of local interest. Call 687-4480 with questions.
Your letters, views & ideas
March 3, 2023
March Forth ! u
Dear BSP reader, please pardon this “departure” from our usual local Hudson Valley fare:
Thank you, BSP team To the Editor: We want to thank you so much for your wonderful coverage of our Annual Meeting of the High Falls Conservancy in you last issue [Feb. 17]. We had an excellent turnout at the meeting and are certain that running both those pieces about the meeting was a factor in our attendance.
As this issue rolls off the press your cartoonist is airborne en route to Miami to celebrate his mother’s ninetieth with family and friends.
Richard and Carole Eppley High Falls Conservancy
Happy Birthday, Mom! I love you.
Has Marbletown just done right by its seniors? Yes! To the Editor: At its Feb. 21 meeting, the Marbletown Town Board voted to raise its property tax relief for limited-income senior homeowners. Although Town taxes are small compared to residents’ county and school tax bills, they matter nonetheless – especially to seniors. And by opting to use the highest senior tax exemption scale that New York state now allows, Marbletown has become a standout example of how localities can help seniors stay in their homes while struggling to make ends meet. Kudos, Town Board members! You deserve them! Unsure of how senior property tax exemptions work? Read on. For decades, New York state has recognized that limited-income senior property owners need a helping hand. In addition to its Enhanced STAR program, which provides some school-tax relief to seniors 65 or older, the state allows towns, counties and school systems to offer limited-income seniors additional property tax relief. The relief comes in the form of a sliding income scale that enables senior homeowners to get a reduction of from 5% to 50% on their home’s taxable assessment value. The state sets the maximum income level for each exemption percentage. Historically, for example, eligible incomes could be no higher than $29,000 for a 50% exemption, and they could be no higher than $37,400 for a 5% exemption. Municipalities are allowed to set lower exemption income caps, but they can’t exceed the state’s maximums. Last August New York state increased its sliding scale limits. The $29,000/50% exemption was raised to$50,000/50%, and the $37,400/5% exemption is now $58,400/5%. The update to the state’s sliding scale is terrific news for limited-income senior homeowners. But once voted upon by a municipality, senior exemption scales tend to remain stagnant for long periods. Marbletown adopted the state’s 2010 sliding scale that same year, and both scales remained unchanged for 13 years. The problem with scales that don’t change over time is that seniors’ Social Security incomes do change. They rise, because of annual Federal cost-of-living adjustments (COLAs). Consider how stagnant exemptions have affected Marbletown senior John Doe. In 2010 his eligible income was $29,000, just low enough to warrant a 50% exemption. But by the beginning of 2023, that income, adjusted for all the intervening COLAs, had risen to $36,120.08. It’s certainly no easier for John to negotiate living expenses in 2023 than it was in 2010. (Many seniors would argue that it’s far more difficult because prescription drug prices and health care
3/4/2023 costs have dramatically outpaced COLAs). But John’s tax exemption using the scale in effect since 2010 has plummeted. Before Marbletown’s Feb. 21 Town Board meeting, his exemption would be just 10%! The issue of declining exemptions has long needed fixing. And last August New York state – and the Town of Marbletown at its most recent meeting – effectively took the issue on by substantially raising the income maximums eligible for tax exemptions. The benefit will be immediate. Now John Doe’s 2023 eligible income ($36,120.08) will garner a 50% Town tax exemption. And most important, based on estimated COLAs for 2024 through 2031 available on www.ssa.gov, that exemption will prevail throughout the next eight years because John’s growing income will remain below the $50,000/50% cap. In adopting the highest exemption ranges allowed by New York state, the Marbletown Town Board has just opted to do all it legally to help lower Town property taxes for limited-income senior homeowners. And for that, our Town Board members deserve kudos!
supper and refreshments on Feb. 19. Future concert dates and performers include: Maire Ni Chathasaigh and Chris Newman on March 19, followed by the Nordic Fiddlers Bloc on April 16, Ray Bonneville on April 23, and James Keelaghan on May 14. Tickets are $20 in advance and $25 dollars at the door and also may be purchased at the parish office at Christ the King. Even if you are not a folk music aficionado you find yourself tapping your feet and humming along as the music is played. Thanks for considering this great opportunity.
Barbara Goodwin Lomontville
To the Editor: The Marbletown Town Board is to be commended for raising the limit for senior tax exemption to that allowed by the state. But alas, at that same meeting, the board also suggested that the Marbletown Community Center should be sold, it costs too much to run, folks should just meet in the gym over in the Town Hall on Lucas Turnpike, with parking spaces a block away from the building. Back in 2001, Stone Ridge held a series of public meetings. The big concern was the new shopping center, but people were also talking about the future of the town. I spoke up (no surprise), saying the main problem with Stone Ridge was that "there is no there there." Teens who couldn't drive, old folks who couldn't meet, etc., we needed a public place for many reasons. Miraculously, the American Legion donated their building and, miraculously, suppliers donated supplies, and miraculously, people donated their time to create the Marbletown Community Center. People dug the front lawn, planting daffodils. In other words, this building has an important history for this town. Now our community has a center. It's important that we not lose it.
Music concert series at CTK To the Editor: I am writing to make the public aware of our Spring ’23 Folk Music Concert Series at the Church of Christ the King, in Stone Ridge. On Feb. 19, Mary Coogan and Bruce Foley performed a beautiful concert, combining a great baritone voice, guitar and uilleann pipes (Bruce) and a fantastic accompanist on a mandolin and guitar (Mary) Although Bruce grew up in upstate New York, he has for many years sung with a variety of folk groups including with Tommy Sands, Pete Seeger and others performing Irish and American music. To hear him play the uillean pipes and to hear Mary accompany on the mandolin was worth the price of admission alone, to say nothing of the remarkable voice and engagement by the audience with chorus singing. This concert series has been organized by Christ the King parishioner Robyn Boyd, close friend of many of the performers. An added bonus for those in attendance has been the post-concert reception organized by Pamela Hoveling, Helen Kaminski, Margie Menard and Tana Miller. Approximately 40+ concert goers enjoyed a wonderful
Andrew Lutz Stone Ridge
Don’t lose the Marbletown Community Center
ViVi Hlavsa Lomontville
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