Board of Aldermen 11-12-2019 Page 8
O-19-063
Endorsers: Alderman Ernest Jette
Alderman Patricia Klee
Alderman-at-Large Brandon Laws
Alderman Thomas Lopez
Alderman June Caron
Alderwoman Shoshanna Kelly
AMENDING THE ELDERLY AND DISABLED TAX EXEMPTIONS
Given its second reading;
MOTION BY ALDERMAN JETTE FOR FINAL PASSAGE OF O-19-063
ON THE QUESTION
Alderman Jette
| would like to be heard on it. What this Ordinance does is it makes some amendments to the tax
exemptions for the disabled and the elderly. This came about because a constituent of mine pointed out
that there were some differences between the two that were somewhat confusing. When | looked at the
Ordinance | noticed that for the disabled the exemption starts at $194,000 and for the elderly it starts at
$192,000.00, just a $2,000.00 difference. Also for the eligibility for the disabled, for a single person it is a
maximum income of $36,000.00; married couple $40,000.00, whereas for the elderly the maximum income
is $50,000.00 for single or a couple. Also for the maximum assets that can be held by someone applying
for the disabled exemption is $125,000.00, whereas for the elderly it is $150,000.00.
| talked to the Assessing Department and they confirm that this was confusing to people. So | thought that
making them the same, so increasing the elderly the minimum the lowest level of elderly exemption from
$192,000.00 to $194,000.00. Then on the income, the maximum income, raising the maximum income for
the disabled to $50,000.0 for a couple; the same as for the elderly, and then the maximum assets for the
disabled raising that from $125,000.00 to $150,000.00 to make it consistent.
| also noticed that the current Ordinance, so like a lot of our Ordinances this comes from State Enabling
Legislation. We can’t do anything that the State doesn’t let us do. For these exemptions the State has very
detailed rules and they are quite lengthy. Our current Ordinance when it was adopted, tried to paraphrase
these lengthy qualifications into a sentence and it left out some things and it was confusing. So people
coming in to apply for the exemptions weren’t prepared. Our Assessing Department would tell them they
have to go back and get this, that and the other thing.
So what | did, with the help of the Legal Department, is we just copied the qualifications as stated in the
State Law and put them in our Ordinance, if this passes, it will be in our Ordinance. So it will be clear to
people exactly what the qualifications are. So the Mayor's Office, the Mayor agreed that this would be a
good thing. The Administrative Services Director agreed as well and the Budget Review Committee
recommended that this be passed. So! ask you all to support it.
Alderman Dowd
We want to thank Alderman Jette for pointing out all these things and changes to this Ordinance makes it
much fairer for all involved. At first we were skeptical of what the changes were but when he explained it,
we all understood it and it fully passed Budget.
MOTION CARRIED
Ordinance O-19-063 declared duly adopted.
