Seniors Press Lawmakers for Relief from Rising Property TaxesBy Cyndi Roy State House News Service
       Property values across the state are soaring and so are residential tax bills, making it exceedingly difficult for the state’s seniors to afford to live out their golden years at home, advocates for tax relief told lawmakers Tuesday.
       Dozens of supporters testified before a joint hearing of the Committees on Revenue and Elder Affairs Tuesday, urging lawmakers to develop a comprehensive proposal that would allow more seniors to qualify for tax breaks and make it easier for cities and towns to afford those exemptions.
       “We worked for our money and saved it so we wouldn’t be a burden on society,” Walpole senior Barbara Coates told lawmakers. “Please don’t be taking our money away. What we put away doesn’t last too long today.”
       Lawmakers are weighing proposals that would increase income eligibility limits, lower the qualifying age, change the residency requirement, and lower the interest rate seniors pay for deferring their taxes. Supporters say the state’s current tax exemptions and criteria are
inadequate and out of line with the actual cost of living, especially for
seniors living on fixed incomes.

       Proposals under consideration by the committees include several filed by Sen. Cynthia Creem (D-Newton), Rep. Paul Casey (D-Winchester), and others expanding the exemptions allowed under Chapter 59 of state law. The state currently reimburses cities and towns a maximum of $500 per senior.
       Cities and towns have the option of increasing the exemptions, but will not be reimbursed by the state for the increased costs. Several supporters of increasing the exemptions cited a 1998 report from state Auditor Joseph DeNucci that called the state’s reimbursement inadequate and urged lawmakers to increase the cap to $750 per senior.
       “Increasing reimbursements to cities and towns would be such a huge help,” said Laura Russell of the Massachusetts Association of Councils on Aging.
“The state reimbursement hasn’t kept pace with the growing costs.”
       According to the DeNucci report, the $500 exemption covered nearly half the cost of a senior’s tax bill in 1982. Today, it cover’s less than 20
percent. Increasing the reimbursement to $750 is estimated to cost an
additional $6.5 million annually.
       In the last year, the number of Massachusetts communities with average residential property tax bills in excess of $5,000 jumped from 26 to 43, according to the Massachusetts Association of Councils on Aging.
       In the 351 communities statewide, the median property tax bill in 2004 was 224 percent of what it was 16 years ago in 1988, and has leaped 33 percent in the last five years alone. In some communities without a strong commercial tax base, homeowners' property taxes have more than tripled in the past 16 years. Local officials, pressed for funding due to local aid cuts, say they are hesitant to support increasing income eligibility limits for seniors unless there is an increase in state dollars.
       “The proposed laws will allow hundreds more, if not thousands more seniors to qualify for exemptions,” Vicki Blier, chair of the Tax Deferral and
Exemption Study Committee in Lexington, told the committee. “Towns might decide that in order to give exemptions to so many more people, that they will have to reduce the dollar amount of the exemption. What a terrible unintended consequence it will be if those senior citizens with $13,000 incomes end up getting less property tax relief as a result.”
       Other supporters endorsed a proposal (H 2385) filed by Casey to broaden the state’s “circuit breaker” tax credit to include seniors living in homes valued up to $600,000. The credit is currently limited to homes valued at $400,000 or less.
       The bill is supported by advocates from Mass Home Care, a coalition of non-profit elder groups, who say it is the fairest way to provide relief to
seniors because it spreads the cost of the program across a larger
population of residents. Tax exemptions allowed under Chapter 59 of state law, director Al Norman said, are unfair to younger homeowners who have to pick up the costs.
       “Frankly, Chapter 59 exemptions are confusing and outdated,” Norman said in a statement. “Expansion of Chapter 59 provisions therefore pits elderly homeowners against other homeowners in their communities, and this is not a healthy dynamic.”
      Lawmakers are also considering a proposal filed by Gov. Mitt Romney (H 2609) in March that would lower the interest rate senior homeowners pay to defer their property tax payments. That proposal, part of the
administration’s CHOICE plan, would reduce the interest rate communities
charge from 8 percent to 3 percent. It would also raise the income
eligibility from $20,000 a year to $40,000 a year, or $60,000 if adopted by
the municipality. To compensate for the lost revenue, the state would
provide loans to cities and towns to be paid back when the homes are sold.

“A concern among many elders is the rate of interest charged by
municipalities on the property taxes they defer,” Elder Affairs Secretary
Jennifer Davis Carey told lawmakers. “This bill reduces the rate to 3
percent, thereby reducing the hesitancy which prevents many elders from
participating in the program.”
Other proposals would exempt certain elderly residents from tax increases
under Proposition 2 ½ overrides, a bill anti-tax advocates oppose because
it places the burden on other homeowners.

“This is clearly meant to encourage seniors to stay home, thereby helping
overrides pass—at which time the other burdened taxpayers would have to
pick up the seniors’ share of the higher taxes,” members of Citizens for
Limited Taxation said in a statement.

Revenue Committee Co-Chair Rep. John Binienda (D-Worcester) said he hopes
the Legislature can send a bill to Gov. Romney by this fall.
Supporters said it is imperative that a tax package pass this year. “What I
find encouraging was to see that members of the Legislature are aware of
the fact the current system doesn’t meet guidelines necessary to sustain
yourself in the home,” said Barbara Coghlan, director of the Walpole
Council on Aging.