By Staff Reporter
BUFFALO — A proposal to let more low-income seniors keep a break on their Erie County property taxes has been sitting in a legislative committee for months. Its sponsor says the county’s income cutoff hasn’t moved since 2018, while cost-of-living increases push some seniors past it.
The measure, a local law sponsored by Legislator Jeanne Vinal, would raise the household income limit for the county’s partial senior citizens exemption from about $37,400 to $50,000. That $50,000 figure is the highest limit state law allows. Ms. Vinal, an Amherst Democrat who represents the 5th District, has estimated the cost at about $7 million a year in county taxes that eligible seniors would no longer pay.
Supporters had hoped for a vote in September. Instead, the bill, listed as LL Intro. 4-1 (2026), appeared again on the Finance and Management Committee’s Oct. 15 agenda. Next to it was a separate request from Ms. Vinal for a “formal fiscal analysis” of what the exemption would cost, and a letter of support from the chief executive of the Center for Elder Law & Justice. The agenda shows the bill was first filed at the Legislature’s sixth session of the year.
Who qualifies now
Under Section 467 of the state Real Property Tax Law, counties, towns, villages and school districts can each grant homeowners 65 and older a partial exemption if their income falls below a locally set limit. The state Department of Taxation and Finance says that limit can be anywhere from $3,000 to $50,000. Localities can also adopt a sliding scale that phases the break out above that limit.
Erie County’s limit for the coming year is $37,399 in 2025 income, according to the property-tax exemption page that the Town of Alden assessor keeps for county, town, village and school taxes. Seniors who earn even a little more get nothing off their county bill.
WBEN reported that under the version Ms. Vinal described in July, senior households earning less than $45,000 could get a 65% cut in county property taxes and those at $50,000 or less a 50% cut. She told the station that would be the first increase the county has offered since 2018.
“Seniors have already paid enough,” Ms. Vinal said, according to WBEN. “Nobody wants to see senior taxed out of their homes.”
She has argued that the change would mostly protect people already in the program, not add new ones.
“We’re not trying to add more people on it. We’re trying to not have people get off of it,” Ms. Vinal told WKBW. She said the $50,000 figure was set to track cost-of-living increases.
“You shouldn’t be taxed out of your house because you can’t afford it,” she said.
Someone else pays
Exemptions don’t lower what a government collects. They shift it onto everyone else on the tax roll. Brian Nowak, the Cheektowaga town supervisor, made that point when he spoke at a public hearing on the bill this summer.
“Every dollar that those folks don’t pay, other folks have to,” Mr. Nowak said, according to WKBW. He listed veterans’, volunteer firefighters’ and religious exemptions alongside the senior break.
He described Cheektowaga’s own sliding scale, under which homeowners earning under $40,000 get 50% off the town bill. “Then it gradually steps up by 5 percentage points to a little over $48,000 right now,” Mr. Nowak said.
The numbers in County Executive Mark Poloncarz’s proposed 2027 budget show how big the shift could be. The budget would collect a property tax levy of $360,594,731 and cut the rate from $3.09 to $3.01 per $1,000 of assessed value, which the administration calls the lowest in county history. A $7 million exemption would equal about 1.9% of that levy. The proposal is not mentioned in the county executive’s budget message.
Ms. Vinal has said the county can afford it because of stronger-than-expected sales tax revenue and reimbursements, WKBW reported.
The clock
Supporters have said the higher limit would take effect in 2027 if approved. Applications for the senior exemption are due to local assessors by March 1. The Alden assessor’s page lists a March 1, 2027 deadline, with 2025 federal tax returns required as proof of income.
Unless the Legislature acts, seniors applying this winter will be judged against the current $37,399 limit.
The committee’s chair is Legislator Michael H. Kooshoian, and its vice chair is Legislator John A. Bargnesi Jr., according to the agenda.
The Buffalo Chronicle is asking Ms. Vinal’s office and the committee’s leadership when the fiscal analysis will be finished and whether the bill will come up for a vote before the budget is adopted.
This story draws on reporting by WKBW and WBEN, and on Erie County Legislature records.
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