BY ADAM ATKINSON

North Country This Week

POTSDAM — Seniors and persons with disabilities living in the Town of Potsdam will be able to renew their 2022 property tax exemptions without filing renewal applications.

At their end of year meeting Dec. 30, the town board passed a resolution supporting executive order 11.1 issued by Gov. Kathy Hochul on Dec. 27 which will allow the renewals without new application filing.

The order was issued due to the “increased spread of COVID-19 and concern of the health and safety of this vulnerable population,” said the resolution passed by the town board.

Hochul’s order allows municipalities to direct town assessors “to grant exemptions pursuant to such section on the 2022 assessment roll to all property owners who received that exemption on the 2021 assessment roll.”

The order dispenses the need for renewal applications for the exemptions and the requirement for assessors to mail applications out to seniors and those with disabilities who qualify.

The town’s resolution supporting Hochul’s order authorizes Town Assessor James McGuire to handle the renewals in accordance with procedures and terms of the executive order.

The resolutions states that the assessor “may require a renewal application to be filed when he or she has reason to believe that an owner who qualifies for the exemption on the 2021 assessment roll may have changed his or her primary residence, added another owner to the deed, transferred the property to a new owner, or died.”