This is a printer-friendly version of an article from Zip06.com.
01/03/2017 11:00 PMWith all board approvals in hand, Madison seniors in need of tax relief may be just weeks away from seeing the long-awaited Senior Tax Freeze Ordinance approved. Now that is has been approved by both the Board of Finance (BOF) and the Board of Selectmen (BOS), the ordinance will go to Town Meeting for a vote on Thursday, Jan. 26 for a vote.
Residents have been working for years to implement an elderly property tax relief program, also known as a senior tax freeze, in an effort to help Madison’s seniors in need. The program lays out a new senior tax freeze for qualifying individuals for the 2017-2018 fiscal year and outlines changes to be made to the current tax deferral and abatement programs to better coordinate benefits.
The concern behind a senior tax freeze is that some seniors, often on limited, fixed incomes, could be priced out of their hometown by taxes that rise above their ability to pay—a situation possibly eliminated if their taxes are frozen at a current rate. To qualify for the freeze, seniors must meet certain age, income, property valuation limits, and residency eligibility requirements.
The tax burden will then be shifted to other residents in town. According to modeling for the program, the first year the average taxpayer would pay an additional $15.62 in taxes assuming the average-priced home. The program has been designed with caps for the amount of benefits available under the program, proposed at not less than one percent for the previous year’s combined town and educational budgets, according to BOF Chair Joe MacDougald.
“The basic idea is it starts being funded at one percent,” he said previously. “So we say we are going to take one percent of what would be the revenues of the town and...apply it against the tax increases for those people and redistribute the tax burden away from them.”
Throughout 2016 the BOS and BOF made adjustments to the ordinance originally proposed by the Ad Hoc Senior Tax Relief Committee, cleaning up language to comply with state regulations and ease implementation, as well as making a few substantive changes.
One of the more significant and debated changes made by the BOF in September 2016 was voting to shift the income eligibility level. Qualifying levels for the program are based on the 2016 median household income in Madison, which is currently $108,231. Based on that number, the highest qualifying income level for the program, for those married residents who have lived in town for 20 years or more, was changed from 80 percent to 70 percent of the median, or roughly $75,000.
Other qualifying levels for the program were not changed. For residents who have lived in town for one to four years, the qualifying level for single residents is 16 percent of the median income, or $17,317, and 20 percent ($21,646) for married residents. For residents who have lived in town for five to nine years, the qualifying level for single residents is 32 percent ($34,634) and 40 percent ($43,292) for married residents.
For residents who have lived in town for 10 to 15 years, the qualifying level for single residents is 40 percent ($43,292) and 50 percent ($54,116) for married residents. For residents who have lived in town for 16 to 19 years, the qualify level for single residents is 48 percent ($51,950) and 60 percent ($64,939) for married residents. For residents who have lived in town for 20 years or more, the qualify level for single residents is 64 percent ($69,268) or 70 percent ($75,762) for married residents.
If the ordinance is approved at Town Meeting, qualifying seniors can apply for the freeze starting Feb. 1, 2017 through May 15, 2017 at the Senior Center.
The Senior Tax Freeze Ordinance goes to Town Meeting scheduled for Thursday, Jan. 26 at 7 p.m. at Walter C. Polson Middle School.