October 10, 2008

Kennedy Fights for Cold War Veterans

Ensures Local Law will Include City of Buffalo Cold War Veterans

At the most recent legislative session, Legislator Tim Kennedy continued to fight for our veterans. By sponsoring a recent resolution, Kennedy requested that the county attorney draft a local law authorizing a tax exemption for Cold War veterans.

This exemption, which was originally only slated to be made available to those Cold War veterans outside city lines until 2010, was changed due to Legislator Kennedy's persistence and follow through. After communications with the City of Buffalo and the Erie County Department of Veterans Services, Kennedy realized that this exemption would only be offered to veterans living in the city if the law were to take effect before November 28, 2008. In an effort to ensure that every Cold War veteran eligible received the exemption, Kennedy contacted the necessary parties and made changes to the resolution.

"Helping veterans, regardless of their address, has always been and will remain one of my top priorities as Erie County Legislator," stated Kennedy. "I refuse to let technicalities jeopardize veterans receiving the benefits they rightfully deserve."

During this past year, Legislator Kennedy's office has continually fought on behalf of the preservation and enhancement of veterans' benefits to all veterans throughout Erie County. Kennedy led the successful charge in the Erie County Legislature to create a stand-alone department of veterans' services within Erie County that the former Giambra administration had done away with. Additionally, Legislator Kennedy offered the first ever Erie County Veterans outreach program in his district, which has since been mirrored in every other district throughout Erie County.

The resolution calls for the creation of a local law which authorizes an exemption from real property taxation for qualified residential real property owned by Cold War veterans or certain members of their family based upon a percentage of assessed value. The exemption is applicable to general municipal taxes, but not school taxes, special ad valorem levies or special assessments. For further details regarding this resolution, please feel free to contact Legislator Tim Kennedy's office at 824-6180.

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