By Richard Liebson and Colleen Wilson
The Ardsley American Legion Post 458 is lobbying for a law that would require the state to reimburse school districts that adopt the veterans property tax exemption.
Vietnam veteran Stephen Wittenberg is a member of his hometown American Legion Post 458 in Ardsley and of Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 200 in Hastings-on-Hudson.
Although members of both posts served honorably, Wittenberg and other Ardsley veterans don’t receive the same benefits as their neighbors because of what he says is a flaw in state tax law. The two-year-old Alternative Veterans Exemption provides a school tax break for qualified veterans who live in districts that approve the measure. The 15 percent reduction in veterans’ property assessments was adopted in 2014 by the Hastings Board of Education. The Ardsley school board, in meetings packed with veterans, has voted against the measure twice.
“The state thought this was the right thing to do for veterans, but evidently, the Ardsley School District doesn’t,” Wittenberg said.
While school districts are reimbursed by the state for STAR tax exemptions, that’s not the 
case for the veterans tax break, which shifts the burden to other property owners. The result has been a divisive and sometimes emotional issue across the lower Hudson Valley and the state, as school districts decide whether acknowledging military service with a tax break is fair to other property owners who must pick up the tab.
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