Tax Break Increased For Low-Income Senior Homeowners

In a 3-2 vote Tuesday, the Highlands County commissioners tripled the property tax break granted to low-income senior homeowners who have a Homestead property.

The exemption for low-income senior homeowners was raised from $5,000 to $15,000 off the taxable value of a home. The change raises the tax savings per eligible home from $35.50 to $106.50 per year.

Commissioners Guy Maxcy, Don Bates and Edgar Stokes formed the majority block to pass the measure.

Voting against the increased exemption were commissioners Barbara Stewart and Jeff Carlson.

This is the first increase in this tax break since the commissioners initiated it in 2001. At that time, state law allowed counties to set this exemption up to a maximum of $25,000. Two years ago, the limit on the exemption was raised to $50,000.

Homestead homeowners age 65 and up are eligible for this tax break if their annual adjusted gross household income is $24,916 or less.

Based on the 1,687 senior households getting this exemption now, the extra $10,000 reduction in a home's taxable value will drop county property tax collections by about $109,000 per year, according to the county's Office of Management and Budget.

Stewart, who was sworn in Tuesday to her second four-year term, and Carlson, who was sworn in for his first term on the county commission, argued that tax relief should be spread out to include all taxpayers.

"There are a lot of people in our county who could use a tax break," Carlson said. He said a tax break should be "spread across the board."

"We can't do that," Stokes replied. "This," he added, referring to raising the tax break for low-income senior homeowners, "is what we can do."

Stokes said he supported raising this tax break based on a parable in the Bible which he paraphrased as stating, "Help the child that needs the help."

Stewart said she opposed raising this exemption as a matter of "fairness," because she doesn't believe in giving special tax breaks to one group and not to another.

"There are a lot of people in our county that really need help, and it's not just seniors," she said.

The income limit alone doesn't adequately distinguish between seniors who need tax relief and those who don't, Stewart said. A person above the income limit could have to spend much of their income on health care or special needs, she said, while someone below it could have more disposable income.

Maxcy, who was sworn into his fifth consecutive four-year term, said the commissioners erred by not raising this exemption five years ago.

Many groups of people are "carved out" for special help from local government, and low-income seniors deserve the help, he said.

Agricultural lands get a special exemption on property taxes, and deservedly so, Maxcy said. The county "carves out" other groups for help, he said, ranging from the county's contribution to the NU-HOPE agency to funding the Children's Advocacy Center.

Low-income seniors "are the bottom of the totem pole folks who absolutely need our help," he said.

Highlands County Property Appraiser Raymond McIntyre said he doesn't expect the number of seniors filing for this exemption to rise substantially due to the $10,000 increase in the reduction on taxable value of a home.

"But," he added, "I have no way to know that for sure."

Since this tax exemption was initiated seven years ago, McIntyre said, the number of households receiving it has remained steady, varying between 1,650 to 1,700 per year.