ANOTHER BABY STEP FOR SENIORS

By Delegate Craig Blair

Charleston:  Seniors over 65 currently qualify for the $20,000 Homestead Exemption.  Other possible tools are the Senior Citizen Tax Credit of 2001 which provides an additional $10,000 credit or with the passage of SB541 in 2007, any homeowner that spent more than 4% of their income could apply for up to $1000 tax credit.

The Governor introduced SB 239 which created the new Senior Citizen Property Tax Payment Deferment Act. It passed both houses and will be effective July 1, 2008. It provides property tax relief in two ways.

As amended by Senators Boley, Unger & Yoder, a property tax rebate.  Homestead qualified seniors whose aggregate annual income is $25,000 or less, adjusted for inflation, and used exclusively for residential purposes would qualify. The rebate is for the amount of property tax increase over the property tax due in the year preceding application and is only available if the tax increase is greater than $300 or 10%.

Second, is the Governor’s property tax deferral.  All qualifying homestead owners could apply for deferment of the property tax increase if it is greater than $300 or 10%. The amount of the deferment is equal to the amount of property tax increase over the amount of property tax assessed in the year preceding application. A lien is created on the property in the amount of the deferment. It continues until terminated in one of the following ways: (1) Death of the owner; (2) sale of the property; (3) determination by the assessor that the property no longer qualifies; (4) failure by the owner to maintain adequate fire and flood insurance to cover the cost of the lien; or (5) payment of the lien in full. The lien is to be paid within 90 days of the termination.

I offered an amendment to exempt out Social Security income, Delegate Miller’s eliminated the interest on a deferment, and Delegate Duke’s would have made rebate qualification 300% of poverty.  Duke and I both withdrew our amendments because leadership would have completely scrapped the bill otherwise.  We were able to get Miller’s amendment passed because of the proposed 9% predatory interest rate.  Withdrawing our amendments allowed for passage of this small, but helpful bill. Our perspective was that 5% is 5%, 100% of nothing is exactly that, nothing.  At least this bill did help those in the greatest need, but clearly wasn’t near enough.

Eastern Panhandle legislators are acutely aware of the property tax burden that seniors face.  We will continue to work for additional property tax relief for seniors and for that matter, all homeowners in growth areas like the Eastern Panhandle.