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Wrong Way to Go

Everyone wants to help seniors with their tax bills so they can more easily stay in their Madison homes. However the proposed senior tax freeze is the wrong way to go.

As I explained in a letter a few months ago, there are already two programs to help low income seniors—abatement and deferral—in place. In particular, the deferral allows eligible seniors to postpone up to $8,000 of their annual taxes, which for many of the group covers the entire bill, until such time as they sell their homes. This program is clearly the best for both the seniors and the town: The seniors get much more relief while they are there, and the town recoups the funds when the home sells. Why don’t seniors flock to this program? For some, it is because they want to leave their property to their heirs with no accumulated taxes being deducted from the selling price. While this is a valid objective, all other taxpayers, including seniors who miss the cutoff, are being asked to fund this inheritance.

This proposal is coming up for a Town Meeting vote on Thursday, Jan. 26, at 7 p.m. at Polson Auditorium. If your readers want to speak out against this extra expenditure of $800,000 per year, I encourage them to show up and vote “No” on the tax freeze.

Fillmore McPherson

Madison