Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Property Tax Rent Rebate topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
House Finance Committee raises life-insurance exclusion for property tax/rent rebate to $10,000
Summary
The House Finance Committee unanimously approved House Bill 32 to increase the life-insurance death benefit exclusion for the Pennsylvania Property Tax/Rent Rebate program from $5,000 to $10,000; sponsors said the change updates a decades-old threshold and will prevent modest policies from disqualifying recipients.
Chairman Samuelson opened the House Finance Committee meeting and introduced House Bill 32, which would raise the life-insurance death benefit exclusion for the Pennsylvania Property Tax/Rent Rebate program from $5,000 to $10,000.
Representative Johanna Cepeda Freitas, the bill’s sponsor, said the current $5,000 exclusion had not been adjusted in about 30 to 40 years and that modest life-insurance policies of $10,000–$12,000 could push people out of the rebate program. “So my bill would just raise it from 5,000 to 10,000,” Cepeda Freitas said. The sponsor noted the PACE and PACENET programs were adjusted in February 2003 to a $10,000 exclusion and framed this bill as an alignment with that prior change.
Committee members offered no opposition. Chairman Samuelson asked whether there were any negative votes; none were recorded, and the committee passed House Bill 32 unanimously.
The committee did not specify an effective date in the meeting dialogue beyond the chair’s statement that, if enacted, the change would take effect next year; this year’s 2025 rebates would still be distributed under the existing July 1 schedule. The transcript did not provide budgetary estimates or an enacted-law citation for the change.
