Committee advances expansion of disabled veterans property tax exemption to veterans rated 50% or higher

The House Veterans Affairs & Emergency Preparedness Committee unanimously advanced House Bill 1257 as amended, a proposal to expand Pennsylvania's disabled veterans real estate tax exemption to more veterans and certain surviving spouses.

"House Bill 1257 will relieve just a small portion of the debt that we owe to our veterans and their families who have sacrificed their well-being," Representative Probst, the bill sponsor, said as she urged committee support. The bill removes the requirement that a veteran must have served in a conflict to qualify and expands eligibility for surviving spouses of service members who were killed in action, missing in action or prisoners of war.

Representative Dougherty offered and the committee adopted amendment A1082, which "clarifies eligibility and grants proportional tax relief to veterans rated at 50% disability or higher," he said. Under that amendment, a veteran's exemption would scale with the VA disability rating (for example, a 50% rating would receive a 50% exemption); the transcript records the amendment as adopted unanimously.

Committee members discussed funding and program size. Chairman Gillan said the committee must address who will "pick up the tab" for expanded eligibility and said he preferred a "may" rather than a mandatory "shall" for some provisions. He also noted that the state Veterans Commission administers means testing and that the current means-test ceiling for a 100% property tax abatement is $114,000 per year, he told colleagues.

Mike Hillman, committee staff, provided program counts and rough estimates: about 23,000 veterans currently participate in the existing 100%-disabled program; the committee's best estimate of veterans rated 100% disabled is about 30,630 (the Motor Vehicle Administration gave a higher estimate of about 50,000, which may reflect disability unemployability figures). Veterans rated 50% to 90% disabled number roughly 63,000, Hillman said. He also reported a historical spending range: the program's cost was about $4 million in 2006 and roughly $72 million now, with projections cited in the hearing indicating higher amounts that have "crested over a $100,000,000." Hillman said precise fiscal projections depend on assumptions about homeowner rates and application take-up and that the Appropriations Committee will develop a fiscal note.

Chairman Gillan withdrew his own amendment (A1078) after discussing concerns and indicated he would continue to press questions about fiscal sustainability. With A1082 adopted, House Bill 1257 as amended "moves to the floor unanimously for consideration," the chair said.

The bill now goes to the full House; committee members and staff said further fiscal detail will come through the Appropriations Committee's fiscal note process.