Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Tax Policy topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Board recommends keeping veterans' disabled tax credit at $2,500; debate continues over potential increase
Summary
Select Board recommended a $2,500 disabled veterans' tax credit on the town warrant after debate about eligibility, fiscal cost and fairness; one proposal to raise a subset to $4,000 did not advance and the item was tabled for further data on eligible recipients.
Select Board members debated how to respond to recent state-law revisions to the veterans' tax-credit program. The chair said the board's motion was to recommend on the warrant that disabled veterans keep the existing $2,500 local credit so current recipients are not reduced. "I'm in favor of keeping it at the $2,500 — I want to keep them whole," the chair said.
Another selectman proposed increasing the total for permanently and totally disabled veterans to $4,000 this year; that motion did not receive a second and did not carry. Members pressed for more precise eligibility numbers before making permanent increases: a staff email cited in the meeting said 32 people currently receive the credit, and the board discussed the potential fiscal effect of an increase to $4,000 (an illustrative calculation cited $1,500 extra times the number of recipients).
Board members emphasized that any final change to the credit would go to town meeting and that the selectboard's role was to recommend warrant language. The board voted to recommend retaining the $2,500 credit for veterans on the warrant and tabled further increases until staff can provide exact counts of eligible residents and fiscal impact estimates.
