Letter: No ulterior motive with senior tax exemption

Posted 11/29/17

To the editor:

If Matt Medeiros is correct with his history of the senior tax exemption, and there is no reason to suspect otherwise, it would seem that in the 1970s all seniors received $1,500 …

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Letter: No ulterior motive with senior tax exemption

Posted

To the editor:

If Matt Medeiros is correct with his history of the senior tax exemption, and there is no reason to suspect otherwise, it would seem that in the 1970s all seniors received $1,500 off their taxes, across the board. Today, in 2017 that ‘flat exemption’ amount is $368.

There is no question $1,500 is a meaningful amount — it was then and it is today, but only those seniors making less than $28,000 in annual income are eligible to receive that amount. Seniors making $28,001 receive $368.

Surely even the most critical among us would agree that economic conditions have changed since the 1970s, a situation compounded by the increase in the number of seniors and the disparity of income amongst seniors and non-seniors alike.

The effort by the current town council is to address those changes and increases, by giving a more meaningful tax exemption, i.e. more than $368, to those seniors with low to moderate fixed incomes, while not adding to the tax burden of non-senior taxpayers, many of whom are living on similar low and moderate annual incomes. The money has to come from somewhere.

The best guess is that there are approximately 1,000 senior households out of the 6,000 tax-paying households in Barrington, but that number is unknown as well as whether those seniors have low, moderate or high incomes.

To make a balanced and informed decision, the ad hoc committee, who have worked hard to reach a more certain, less financially risky recommendation for a more meaningful senior tax exemption (i.e less impact on the rest of the taxpayers), needs more information.

There is no ulterior motive at work here, no smoke and mirrors, only a dedicated group trying to help senior taxpayers in need, especially in these trying economic times. To suggest otherwise, insults us as a community of tax-paying volunteers and as a community at large.

Kate Weymouth

Barrington

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