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Committee to seek implementation details after assessors back HERO Act veterans tax flexibility
Summary
The Everett City Committee of Ways and Means voted to leave a resolution in committee for one month to gather implementation details on expanded veterans tax-exemption flexibility under the state HERO Act after the Director of Assessing said the Board of Assessors supported the change.
A resolution asking the city chief financial officer to appear before the Committee of Ways and Means and discuss implementation of expanded local flexibility for a veterans tax exemption under the HERO Act was left in committee for one month on April 7, the committee confirmed.
The resolution, offered by Councilor de Pero, requests information and implementation planning for the increased local flexibility the HERO Act allows for veterans' property tax exemptions. “We discussed the HERO Act at the Board of Assessors back in February 20 of this year, and all the members were in favor,” Bennet Zimpania, the Director of Assessing, told the committee.
The nut graf: Committee members said they want specific implementation details before advancing the resolution to the full City Council. The committee asked the assessor’s office to provide the number of eligible residents and estimated dollar impacts so staff and elected officials can draft an implementation plan.
During the discussion, Councilor DeFeo asked whether a timeline or shifts in eligibility were known; Zimpania called the matter “still preliminary” and said staff would continue to work with the committee and other departments to refine numbers and procedures. Committee members voted to leave the resolution in committee for one month to allow the Assessing Department to return with concrete figures and implementation options.
The action is procedural: no ordinance or tax change was adopted at the meeting. The committee’s one-month hold is intended to produce data — counts of potentially eligible veterans and estimated fiscal impacts — that will inform any future formal recommendation or ordinance drafting. The committee asked the city finance office and the assessor’s office to coordinate on those figures before the next meeting.
No formal vote to change tax policy occurred at the April 7 meeting; the committee recorded only the procedural motions to invite the assessor to speak and to keep the item in committee pending further information.
