Senior Tax Relief Remains ‘Problematic’

    When the Board of Selectmen appointed the Ad Hoc Senior and Disabled Tax Relief Committee, it asked that the group to look specifically at the issue of tax freezes for seniors as well as other programs. At a recent board meeting, the news selectmen heard from John Brady, chair of the ad hoc group, was not bright.

    Brady met with the selectmen to provide an update on the ad hoc committee’s work, which is scheduled to conclude Sept. 30 with a report and specific recommendations. A recommendation for a tax freeze may not be among them.

    The town presently has tax relief programs for seniors, but not a tax freeze, which many seniors have been requesting. Neighboring Guilford has a freeze for seniors and has been used as an example of a program that works well.

    Brady told the selectmen, “You may have heard about the large problems they had recently in Guilford. This sort of proved that tax freezes become more and more expensive…and has influenced our thinking.”

    Guilford had just completed a property revaluation. The funds it had set aside within its budget to cover costs of the senior tax freeze proved insufficient and additional funds had to be found to continue the program.

    “We have run several scenarios out for 20 years,” Brady explained. In these scenarios, the committee has considered a pure tax freeze, freezes within various age and income limits, and several partial freezes. The costs continue to increase as the projected number of baby boomers reach retirement.

    “On our committee, there is a consensus that a tax freeze is problematic, expensive, hard to plan out, unpredictable, and unfair,” Brady said. “Revaluations add more uncertainty to the issue. Perhaps we could make a partial freeze work, but that too has problems.”

A Senior’s Request

    At the same Board of Selectmen meeting, Marlene Beckman, a senior, contended the tax freeze discussion was centering around budget caps and limitations without considering the cost benefits of retaining seniors in town. Don’t look simply at costs, she said, but cost benefits.

    Using calculations she has presented to the ad hoc committee previously, Beckman said retaining seniors in their homes with a tax freeze is less expensive than educating two children in the school system. Educating two children for two years costs $49,248, she said. Freezing taxes on a home assessed at $400,000 costs the town $371 in the second year. “If you keep us in our home, the savings in the second year is $48,877. It is very clear that in the second year there would be no cost to Madison,” Beckman said.

    “Why is this cost benefit not being addressed by town officials? How can an informed decision be made about any topic without looking at the pro and con viewpoints? We have heard a one-sided cost-to-the-town argument and a warning to citizens that a tax freeze will create a ‘burden’ but it does not have to be that way,” she contended.

    Beckman was not alone. Another resident, Barbara Davis, said, “A cost benefit analysis is very necessary…The town needs to look at this type of comparison, particularly going forward.”