Senior Tax Rebate article to be amended

Date: 4/9/2012

April 9, 2012

By Chris Maza

chrism@thereminder.com

LONGMEADOW — The Finance Committee has shifted track, telling John Bowen, chair of the Board of Directors for the Council on Aging, that it would recommend the Senior Tax Rebate proposal, provided that certain modifications to the program were made.

The Finance Committee initially had voted not to recommend the warrant article originally placed on the warrant.

The proposal would offer a property tax rebate to seniors older than 70 years of age who have lived in town for 10 years or more and have income totaling less than $35,000 a year as an individual or $39,000 a year as joint applicants.

"The idea here is to help the seniors who are making $20,000 a year and are struggling to pay a $5,000 tax bill," Bowen said.

Members of the Finance Committee expressed concerns over what income and assets should be taken into consideration in the application process.

"The intent of this I like, but I don't like the fact that in just saying income, someone could be making $200,000 on municipal investments that couldn't be reflected," Committee member Mark Barowsky said. "So they could, in fact, be making $235,000 a year and still qualify for this."

Committee member James Law suggested utilizing adjusted gross income (AGI), however, it was decided that leaves out too much financial information. Instead, the committee agreed that total income, including all tax-exempt income, should be the measure for rebate applications. The number would be equivalent to the "total income" figure on line 22 of the 2011 1040 federal tax return form.

Meanwhile, other committee members questioned whether or not the program should be allowed to be a permanent fixture or something that is periodically renewed.

"Once it becomes a law, it's extremely difficult to change," Committee member Edward Steiger said.

Bowen and Aseltine agreed to change the language to state that the rebate program would be renewed every three years at a Town Meeting.

Law also suggested removing the requirement that applicants qualify for the Circuit Breaker program.

"I think you want to drop the part that says they have to qualify for the senior Circuit Breaker only because I think our governor is going to attack that very shortly," he said. "He looks for any way he can make money and that senior Circuit Breaker isn't repetitive. It's enacted each year. If that drops, the way I read this, that would mean no one would qualify and you'd have to start all over again."

Steiger concurred, stating that the town's policies regarding the rebate should be independent of any state legislation.

"If we base it on another aspect of the legislative system and that aspect changes, the it all would be totally out of whack," he said.

Because the warrant has closed, the changes must be made as an amendment on the floor at Town Meeting.

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