To the Board of Education, Highland Central School District: Section 467 of the NYS Real Property Tax Law allows school districts to reduce the property taxes of senior citizens (aged 65 or older) who meet certain income requirements. Seniors who qualify for the program can have the assessed value of their residential property reduced by as much as 50%. To qualify for the full 50% reduction, seniors can’t make more than the maximum income set by the district. The law permits the district to cap the limit at any amount from $3,000-$29,000. The law also permits a “sliding-scale” option for seniors whose income is more than $29,000. Districts can set the cap for the sliding-scale as high as $37,399.99. Seniors who earn $37,399.99 could receive a 5% reduction on their residential property assessment. The closer their income is to $29,000, the closer their reduction would be to 50%. Although our district is permitted to increase the cap for the 50% reduction to $29,000, our cap is set at $21,500 ($7,500 less than the allowable maximum) and the sliding scale limitation is $29,899.99 (also $7,500 less than the maximum allowed by law). In 2013, the tax base for the Town of Lloyd was $1,021,715,030. The 2012-13 exemption value (“the exempt portion of the assessed value”) for the Senior Exemption Program was only $10,807,853 and the “foregone revenue” (taxes that were exempted) totaled a mere $46,577, which was distributed amongst the non-exempt properties. The 2013 Town of Lloyd Final Assessment Roll shows 4,178 taxable parcels in the Town of Lloyd. While I’m sure there’s a formula to spread the forgone revenue among the non-exempt properties so the properties worth more pick up a greater share of the exemptions, I don’t believe individual increases can be prohibitively high. In 2010, only 17% of Highland residents were age 65 or over. Even in the unlikely event that every single one of those seniors owned a home AND qualified for the senior exemption program, I believe we have the population necessary to spread an increase out without causing the rest of the community undue distress. Particularly telling to me is that the US Census Bureau Poverty Guideline for a 2-person household is $15,510, yet our maximum cap allows our seniors to make only a little more than $115 more than the US Federal Poverty Limit per week to qualify for a 50% reduction in their assessment. For a population already encumbered with rising medical costs, prescription plans, and food bills, relief in the form of lower housing costs would be a welcome, well deserved break. After a lifetime of contribution to us, it’s the least we can do. Sincerely, -- Jennie Q. Colabella, Highland (1) co.ulster.ny.us/realproperty/docs/2012%20Annual%20Report.pdf#page=50 (pg 43) (2) co.ulster.ny.us/realproperty/docs/2012%20Annual%20Report.pdf#page=50 (pg 48) (3) co.ulster.ny.us/realproperty/docs/2012%20Annual%20Report.pdf#page=50 (pg 20) (4) co.ulster.ny.us/realproperty/docs/2012%20Annual%20Report.pdf#page=50 (pg 50) (5) co.ulster.ny.us/realproperty/docs/assessment_rolls/Lloyd-2013-Final-Assessment-Roll.pdf (pg 1247) (6) quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/36/3634484.html (7) aspe.hhs.gov/poverty/13poverty.cfm#thresholds
Posted on: Thu, 22 Aug 2013 01:52:12 +0000