Town meeting hypothetical article;
Yes or No?
To see if the town will vote to amend prior article, senior tax work off program.
from “The Senior Tax Work-Off Program, for taxpayers over 60 years of age, shall provide a maximum abatement of Five-Hundred Dollars ($500.00) for each participant earned at an hourly rate as the Board of Selectmen shall, from time to time, set as the minimum wage of the Town in compliance with statute; said abatement(s) to be paid from the Assessor’s Overlay account.”
To “The Senior Tax Work-Off Program, for taxpayers over 60 years of age, shall provide a maximum abatement set by the select board, per M.G.L. c 59, section 5K, in consultation with council on aging, for each participant, earned at an hourly rate set as the minimum wage of the Town in compliance with statute; said abatement(s) to be paid from the Assessor’s Overlay account.”
There is over $700,000.00 in the overlay fund (and it was explained to the SB that it is planned to add $130,000.00 more to the overlay fund) now, as a senior and a member of the board, I would be in favor of an amount of not less than $1500.00 per senior, with work assigned by SB/council on aging. There are many things seniors can/could do, the list is long, and there are seniors in Templeton who are more than capable of helping the town out as well as themselves. Consider this as an unofficial survey.
This is a big improvement over what has been done in the past. Consideration should be given to making a change. Costs will continue to go up. This would be a big help to those people who qualify.
ReplyDeleteEven better, we should abolish all property taxes on 1st homes. Think it can't be done? Think again. Florida is working toward that goal.
ReplyDeleteIt requires a new mindset. Limit government spending on the state level. Regionalized police. Regionalize Fire. Use State tax revenue to provide government services. And most important, STOP inventing new entitlements for special groups, stop new spending initiatives. If you want something new, get rid of some existing spending.
I'm all for it. Justice was just saying the Overlay account is to high at about $750,000 and it should be closer to $600,000.
ReplyDeleteI think increasing the program to $1000-$1500 per senior while increasing eligible seniors to 100 or 125 on a cycled or revolving list so applications are are randomly selected from elidable candidates. We have many tasks that could be done from Office help to picking up trash on side of roads.