To: Members of the General Court
Today
--
November 15, 2007
Re:
Senior Citizen Prop
2½ Exemption
To:
Members of the
General Court
May 1, 2007
Re: Mayday for
Proposition 2½ –
S.1697, Sen. Baddour;
H.2840, Rep. Balser
Citizens for Limited Taxation takes
second place to no one in its concern for senior
citizens facing unaffordable property taxes. When we
placed Proposition 2½ on the1980 ballot, we were
especially aware of the relief it would provide seniors
and others on fixed incomes.
But some communities are passing overrides without
regard to lower- or fixed-income people, of all ages,
who cannot afford them. When we created an override
provision, we anticipated that it would be used for
emergencies and unusual circumstances, not for operating
budgets year after year. We did not envision local
officials giving their unions extraordinary pension and
health insurance benefits that would become “fixed
costs,” paid for by taxpayers with high fixed costs of
their own.
Though focused on senior citizens, we intended to limit
property taxes for all citizens. We are opposed to new
bills that give a break to seniors at the expense of
young families with mortgages, family healthcare
expenses, future college tuition and their own
retirement savings. We are especially opposed to S.1697
and H.2840, which would exclude seniors from an override
in their community. This is clearly meant to encourage
seniors to stay home, thereby helping overrides pass –
at which time the other burdened taxpayers would have to
pick up the seniors’ share of the new higher taxes.
The circuit breaker legislation is more fair, but
because it is an income tax cut, it cannot qualify as
the “property tax relief” that Governor Patrick
promised. We support another income tax cut contained
in H.3162, which gives relief to people who support
elderly parents in their homes and in the long run can
save taxpayer dollars.
CLT has filed a bill, S.1702, not being heard today,
that would help all taxpayers by limiting the number of
overrides to one in any 12 month period; and allowing an
underride in all communities, not just the few that
presently have the ability to place a tax cut on local
ballots.
Long-term, however, the only action that will save our
taxpayers and our communities from fiscal crises is
reform of public employee early retirement, pension and
health insurance benefit packages. We hope the
Legislature will have the courage to take on the unions
and address these issues.
Prop 2½ went into effect twenty-six years ago, as of
July 1. We appreciate the ongoing support that the
Legislature in general has shown for Prop 2½, the senior
citizens’ best friend, and hope that you will vote “No”
on
S.1697 and H.2840.