Grand Island School Board looks into full tax exemption for 100% disabled veterans; appoints George

Story and photo by Senior Contributing Writer Alice Gerard

At the Sept. 12 meeting of the Grand Island Central School Board, Interim Assistant Superintendent of School Business and Finance Doug Whelan discussed the possibility of exempting veterans who are considered 100% disabled and unable to work from paying school taxes on their property.

“We have the option of saying to (veterans) they don’t have to pay taxes,” he said. “So, they would like us to take that up for discussion. It is an option for all towns and villages and school boards. That’s our latest guidance. It says we may adopt a resolution to provide this relief to those veterans.”

“They are totally unemployable. They have the Veterans Administration saying they are 100% disabled.”

School District Superintendent Dr. Brian Graham said, “It was part of our conversation last year, but the law has been amended. It went from a group of people on the Island, who would have been eligible, to a much smaller number. Maybe less than 10. It’s because they’re making sure the person is 100% disabled, but also unable to work. Before, you could have been disabled and not have been in the military, and you could work. They’ve fixed that in the law. I know Doug and I support this concept, and we will bring more information to the board.”

Board of Education President Jay Gover said, “Thank you to Beth Crvelin, who brought it to my attention. It ended up in my spam folder. We did get an email from a community member regarding this. We will definitely get this information out to the trustees and put it on a future agenda.”

Trustee Mike Madigan said, “There are a number of schools, (such as) West Seneca and Lancaster, that have actually implemented it. What we want to know is what would the impact be to the rest of the taxpayers. It’s veterans of foreign wars, not just people who were wounded.”

In other news, Graham introduced Daniel P. George, who was appointed as the new assistant superintendent of school business and finance.

“He earned his bachelors’ degree in business administration, particularly in accounting, and a master’s of business administration from Niagara University, and became a New York state certified public accountant,” Graham said. “Mr. George has worked for the Bonadio Group, as well as for Freed Maxick, CPAS, and currently, he is with M&T Bank as an internal audit associate. All his work and experiences expanded his understanding of organizational risk assessment, governance, regulatory compliance, internal controls, data analytics, and the development of corrective action plans. We are very pleased that the board has appointed Mr. George as our business manager, also known as assistant superintendent of school business and finances.”

“Congratulations and welcome. We’re so happy you are here,” Grover said.

The next meeting of the Grand Island Board of Education will be held at 7:30 p.m. Oct. 5 in Grand Island High School.