§ 471 — Surviving spouses of police officers killed in the line of duty

§ 471. Surviving spouses of police officers killed in the line of\nduty. 1. After the local legislative body of a county, city, town, or\nvillage passes a local law, or a school district passes a resolution,\nnotwithstanding any other provision of law, real property owned by a\nsurviving spouse of a police officer killed in the line of duty, and\nconstituting the primary residence of such surviving spouse shall be\nexempt from taxation to the extent of fifty per centum of the assessed\nvaluation thereof. Within such local law or resolution, the local\nlegislative body or school district may reduce the percentage of\nexemption authorized pursuant to this section.\n 2. As used in this section, the term "police officer" shall have the\nsame meaning as defined in section 1.20 of the criminal procedure law.\n 3. Notwithstanding any other provision of law to the contrary, the\nprovisions of this section shall apply to any real property held in\ntrust solely for the benefit of a person or persons who would otherwise\nbe eligible for a real property tax exemption, pursuant to subdivision\none of this section, were such person or persons the owner or owners of\nsuch real property.\n 4. (a) For the purposes of this section, title to that portion of real\nproperty owned by a cooperative apartment corporation in which a\ntenant-stockholder of such corporation resides and which is represented\nby their share or shares of stock in such corporation as determined by\nits or their proportional relationship to the total outstanding stock of\nthe corporation, including that owned by the corporation, shall be\ndeemed to be vested in such tenant-stockholder.\n (b) Provided that all other eligibility criteria of this section are\nmet, that proportion of the assessment of such real property owned by a\ncooperative apartment corporation determined by the relationship of such\nreal property vested in such tenant-stockholder to such real property\nowned by such cooperative apartment corporation in which such\ntenant-stockholder resides shall be subject to exemption from taxation\npursuant to this section and any exemption so granted shall be credited\nby the appropriate taxing authority against the assessed valuation of\nsuch real property; the reduction in real property taxes realized\nthereby shall be credited by the cooperative apartment corporation\nagainst the amount of such taxes otherwise payable by or chargeable to\nsuch tenant-stockholder.\n (c) Notwithstanding paragraph (b) of this subdivision, a\ntenant-stockholder who resides in a dwelling that is subject to the\nprovisions of either article two, four, five or eleven of the private\nhousing finance law shall not be eligible for an exemption pursuant to\nthis section.\n (d) Notwithstanding paragraph (b) of this subdivision, real property\nowned by a cooperative apartment corporation may be exempt from taxation\npursuant to this section by a municipality in which such real property\nis located only if the governing body of such municipality, after public\nhearing, adopts a local law, ordinance or resolution providing therefor.\n 5. The commissioner shall develop, in consultation with the\ncommissioner of the division of criminal justice services, a listing of\ndocuments to be used to establish eligibility under this section. Such\ninformation shall be made available to each city, village, town, part\ntown, special district and county assessor's office. The listing of\nacceptable records shall be made available on the internet websites of\nthe division of criminal justice services and the office of real\nproperty tax services.\n