House Votes to Continue Sudbury Senior Tax Program

SUDBURY, MA --- Legislators on Wednesday voted to extend a local program in which Sudbury seniors can work to earn reductions on their property taxes.

The House of Representatives enacted House Bill No. 3890 An Act extending a certain property tax exemption for seniors in the Town of Sudbury. This legislation stemmed from warrant article 35 Means Tested Senior Tax Exemption Amendment & Extension - Special Act that was passed at Sudbury Annual Town meeting last May.

This home rule petition extends the local program for a means-tested senior citizen property tax exemption, said the announcement. This exemption will allow older residents whose property taxes are more than 10 percent of their annual income to reduce their property tax bill by up to 50 percent. This allows seniors in Sudbury to stay in their homes despite the burden of rising property taxes and limited incomes.

“For each of the past two years more than a hundred Sudbury families have been afforded substantial tax relief,” said Rep. Gentile, D-Sudbury, in a statement. “This has allowed them to remain in their homes and continue to engage with friends and neighbors in the community life which we cherish.”

To qualify for the program, you must be a Sudbury resident for at least 10 consecutive years and at least age 65 or any co-owners at least age 60. In 2014, 118 applications were approved with the average benefit of $2,450 and in 2015, there were 124 applications approved with the average benefit of $2,664. Sudbury voters will have the opportunity to ratify the Act at the spring annual town meeting and annual or special town election. If ratified, a sunset provision will allow town meeting to further continue the program in three year increments beginning in 2018.

Rep. Gentile filed the home rule petition with the Massachusetts House and testified in support of it at the public hearing before the Joint Committee on Revenue at the State House on July 28th 2015. He later advocated for the bill’s passage before the Committee on Steering and Policy as well as the Committee on Bills in the Third Reading. The bill was previously passed in the Massachusetts Senate where co-sponsor of House Bill No. 3576, the bills predecessor, Senator Jamie Eldridge of Acton championed its passage.

“The Sudbury senior tax relief legislation is a model for all Massachusetts communities and I am pleased it has passed the Legislature, which allows Sudbury’s innovative senior tax relief program to continue and make it easier for low and moderate-income seniors to stay in the town that they’ve spent their lives in,” said Senator Jamie Eldridge, DD-Acton, a cosponsor of the bill, in a statement. “I want to give particular praise to Representative Carmine Gentile, who represents the people of Sudbury extraordinarily well, for leading the effort on Beacon Hill to pass this bill.”

The Act is now before Governor Charlie Baker.