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City's seniors might get a tax break

Leaders are expected to determine tonight whether those who are low income get a cut in property tax bills.

By LORRI HELFAND
Published August 1, 2006

LARGO - City commissioners will decide tonight whether to give senior citizens who own their homes but have low incomes a $64 break on their property tax bills.

Doesn't sound like much? Don't tell 76-year-old Edie Slade.

"Maybe 64 or 100 dollars isn't much to somebody else," said Slade, a recently retired nurse's aide whose Social Security income is $596 a month. "I could do two or three weeks of groceries on that."

Earlier this year, most city leaders seemed to support the proposed senior homestead exemption, which reduces the taxable value of homes by an additional $15,000.

But the exemption for homeowners 65 and older appeared to lose steam two weeks ago, when it received initial approval by a 4-to-3 vote.

The close vote followed a reversal by the commission's staff, which recommended creating the exemption in April. Later, city officials expressed concerns about pending legislation that could reduce city revenue from property taxes. Commissioners Gay Gentry and Gigi Arntzen said they were mindful of those concerns as well.

But Mayor Pat Gerard said the city should communicate with legislators about those issues rather than ditch the exemption.

"If the Legislature does any of the things they propose this year, these will be the least of our worries," Gerard said.

City Manager Steve Stanton, along with his top aides, also concluded that the senior exemption would be discriminatory because it benefited just those 65 and older.

Commissioner Andy Guyette, who voted in favor of the exemption, disagreed.

Gentry said the city should look at other avenues if it wants to provide a real benefit to those 65 and older. Commissioner Mary Gray Black said she would prefer to reduce the city's property tax rate to help all Largo homeowners.

To qualify for the exemption, seniors would have to be eligible for a standard homestead exemption and could not make more than $23,463 annually. The city's staff estimated that about 500 to 1,000 households may qualify and the city could lose about $37,000 in property tax revenue with the $15,000 exemption.

In 1998, voters approved an amendment to Florida's Constitution creating this exemption. Since then, Pinellas County and 12 other municipalities in the county have adopted exemptions ranging from $10,000 to the maximum amount of $25,000.

Officials considered the maximum exemption when it was proposed earlier this year. An additional $25,000 exemption could save Largo seniors who qualify $107 a year.

[Last modified July 31, 2006, 21:38:11]