Clinton County: Veterans Real Property Tax Exemptions

The exemptions are the State's - Real Property Tax Law 458 (eligible funds), 458-a (alternative) and 458-b (Cold War) - each at local option; the State entries carry the rules. What Clinton County adds is its own choices and the table of everyone else's. The county's alternative exemption. Local Law 2 of 1984 had chosen not to grant the alternative exemption at all; Local Law 4 of 1997 repealed that and granted it at the then State maximums ($12,000 wartime, $8,000 combat, $40,000 disability); and Local Law 2 of 2001, passed June 13, 2001, raised the county's limits to the highest the law then allowed: "Wartime Veteran 15% of assessed value to a maximum of $27,000; Combat Veteran 10% of assessed value to a maximum of $18,000; Disabled Veteran 50% of disability rating to a maximum of $90,000." The county's Cold War exemption. Local Law 1 of 2008 granted it: "10 percent of the assessed value of the qualifying residential real property; provided, however, that such exemption shall not exceed eight thousand dollars ($8,000) or the product of eight thousand dollars multiplied by the latest State equalization rate," plus, for a service-connected disability, "50 percent of the assessed value of the property multiplied by the disability rating, not to exceed forty thousand dollars ($40,000)" or that amount times the equalization rate. Local Law 2 of 2017 removed the ten-year limit: the county exemption lasts "for as long as the qualified owner(s) own(s) qualifying residential real property, without regard to any term limit." Everyone else's. The Real Property office's Veterans Exemptions page tabulates each jurisdiction. Alternative exemption limits (wartime; combat; disability): Altona, Champlain, Chazy, Dannemora, Ellenburg, Mooers, the Town and City of Plattsburgh and the Village of Rouses Point at $27,000; $18,000; $90,000; Peru at $15,000; $10,000; $50,000; Ausable, Beekmantown, Black Brook, Clinton, Saranac, Schuyler Falls and the Village of Champlain at $12,000; $8,000; $40,000; the Village of Dannemora at $6,000; $4,000; $20,000. Among school districts, Northern Adirondack grants $18,000; $12,000; $60,000, Saranac Lake Central $15,000; $8,000; $30,000, and Ausable Valley and the City School District $6,000; $4,000; $20,000. The Cold War exemption is granted by the county, Altona, Beekmantown, Champlain, Chazy, Mooers, Peru, the Town of Plattsburgh, Saranac and Rouses Point (10 or 15 percent, some with ten-year terms) and not by Ausable, Black Brook, Clinton, Dannemora, Ellenburg, the City of Plattsburgh, Schuyler Falls or the other villages. What is not here. The full exemption for a veteran VA rates permanently and totally disabled, new in Real Property Tax Law 458-a(11), is a local option the county has not adopted: no local law grants it and the Legislature's minutes of October 2025 to September 2026 carry no such item. The Real Property page does not mention it. How to file. Fill out the veterans exemption application, have the Veterans Service Agency (518-565-4720) verify eligibility and the military documents - no appointment needed for that - and file with the town assessor or the county Real Property office by March 1. Real Property office: Tammy Lacey, Director, Clinton County Government Center, 137 Margaret Street, Suite 210, Plattsburgh; 518-565-4760; open 8 to 4 weekdays.