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Chair Says Council Will Amend Senior Tax-Relief Language to Avoid Reducing Benefits
Summary
A resident raised concerns that a proposed change to the town's senior tax-relief rules would hurt seniors; the chair and a council member said the change adds roughly $750,000 to the program, and the chair announced an emergency amendment to retroactively address affected tax bills.
At the Stratford Town Council public forum on July 13, a resident raised alarms about proposed changes to the town's grand list property-based senior tax-relief program and asked how the change would affect current beneficiaries.
Debbie Lamberti (305 A Paiute Lane) said the restructuring was "hurting the seniors" and noted differences between the state program income thresholds and the town program. Chair Anthony Freight responded that the council had not reduced existing benefits and had added about $750,000 to the program pool to expand eligibility; he said the administration would seek an emergency order amendment to change the language so the town could retroactively address any erroneous tax bills.
Council member "Mister Green" clarified that proposed part B of the amendment states, "any person currently eligible and receiving benefits pursuant to this program shall not have such benefits reduced in any manner due to this amendment," and said the amendment is intended as an expansion in general.
The chair offered to have the mayor's office connect Lamberti with community-services staff to walk through her tax bill and make corrections as needed. No formal vote or recorded adoption of the emergency amendment occurred during the public forum.
