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Freda Pushing Senior Tax Freeze for North Haven

Adopting a tax freeze for senior citizens has been a popular initiative in the Greater New Haven area, but North Haven First Selectman Michael Freda has something a little extra in mind for his town.

Tax freezes allow low-income seniors to apply for a freeze on their taxes that caps their annual property tax due, generally to the amount due at the time their application is accepted. Other towns adopting the practice point to the relatively low cost of services for seniors and the length of time the seniors have contributed to town revenues. The revenue lost to the tax freeze is made up by other taxpayers.

The senior tax freeze Freda hopes to implement has as a key component, the first selectman said, “that there will be no liens put on the homes and there will be no reach back of the taxes that would have accrued.”

Many towns, such as Guilford, have senior tax freeze programs for qualified individuals in place. Currently, Madison is considering such a plan.

But the North Haven plan, and having the home value “not included” as part of a seniors’ assessment, is unique, according to Freda, and why he thinks the North Haven plan, when and if it is enacted, will be superior to other towns’ plans.

Freda said he believes “between 150 and 350 North Haven residents would benefit” from the type of senior tax freeze program he hopes to implement.

Freda said if the town moves forward with not having home values included as part of the criteria for qualification for tax relief, “We still need to have some sort of asset test in place to make sure we are benefiting the group of seniors that most need this relief.”

The first selectman said a separate board would be charged with coming up with that asset test criteria.

A group of North Haven residents, last year, began the process of studying a senior tax freeze.

The first selectman said he will be looking at the work of that committee “and the town attorney will be drafting a proposed ordinance” for his review.

Once the ordinance is drafted, it would go up for a Town Meeting vote.

Freda said he wants the proposed ordinance, and Town Meeting vote, to be scheduled quickly, as soon as early March, “so that if it does pass we can begin looking at the implications of a senior tax freeze on the rest of the town budget before we finalize next year’s budget.”