New Haven Independent

The break in the proposed new city budget calls for a full freeze on senior households earning $50,000 or less. Those earning more will have their taxes frozen, but they would be payable when they sell their house and realize the increased value. DePino and Westville Alderwoman Ina Silverman originally proposed the elderly tax break a year ago.

While almost every voice rose in unadulterated support at Thursday night’s hearing of the Finance Committee, some such as Don Dimenstein (pictured with DePino), New Haven’s former director of elderly services (he retired in 2001), needed clarification of the six-page-long ordinance.

“The ordinance calls for a minimum of 183 days to be spent in the house to establish residence. What if,” he posed the question to the alders, “someone in the house has to go into the hospital or a nursing home for a good number of days? Might those days be used to disqualify? Also, what if the senior receives an infusion of Medicaid or Medicare funding to pay for treatment? Could that be considered income, even though it’s dedicated to medical treatment, and, let’s say bump someone over the income limit?”

Rob Smuts (on the right), the mayor’s deputy chief of staff and soon-to-be chief administrative officer, provided some but not all answers: Income, he said, would be determined based on federal tax filings. He emphasized how much the mayor supports the freeze.

“The property tax system is broken,” Smuts said, reading the mayor’s formal letter, “… and therefore there is a great need to help seniors.”

Smuts guesstimated that in year one of the freeze 2,715 senior households (the state’s definition of “senior” is 70, which apparently must be used in the law ) would be beneficiaries, with an average freeze/savings of $450 per, totaling $1,221,750. After five years, nearly $5 million in savings would be realized, that money being offset in the budget by savings described in this article.

In a demonstration of democracy, often in words moving and tearful, more than a dozen people spoke of the importance of this tax break. In fact, some said that it is not enough given the squeeze of other fast-rising expenses, such as energy.

Elaine Branca, of the East Shore (the lion’s share of the speakers came in from DePino’s district), was nearly in tears.

“I’m 71 years old,” she said. “I never married and I have no children. I worked 31 years, have a small pension, and a small job. I can barely keep up. When I received the letter that my house’s assessment rose from $63,000 to $125,000, I was in tears. I was desperate. Arlene helped me with a lowering of the assessment by $8,000. Still this is so hard. Please freeze our property tax. I’m from a generation that is very proud, too proud to seek assistance, but we desperately need it.”

Art Ferrucci (pictured on the right) and James LaPorta moved back to Morris Cove from Bethany in 1997. They did it because they lived here for 30 years after they got out of the armed services (Ferruci in Korea, LaPorta with the army in North Africa); Ferrucci was a police commissioner between 1980 and 1992.

They love the city, but Bethany had more going for seniors, they said. “There,” Ferruci said, “we had serious property tax savings because we’re veterans; between the two of us, that made a big difference. Our bills for insurance, for everything were a lot less in Bethany. More needs to be done here.”

There were a few discordant voices, such as Frank DePino’s. While he supported the property tax freeze, he said it is no solution in and of itself.”While our leaders are stealing from us, women are living alone and eating cat food.” He called on the alders to get it together and rethink the whole picture. “I’d like to take it back to a system where we directly make the decisions. This is just not enough.”

By and large, however, support and gratitude were mixed with a sense that the freeze, nice as it might be, was insufficient. One woman from Westville said her energy bill is killing her. Another woman, speaking on behalf of her 90-year-old mother, whom she helps with her paperwork, begged the alders to make the application or eligibility process easy and streamlined.

And this man, Ray Howard, said the freeze is fine but taxes have to go down, not just be frozen.

“I get $498 in a pension from the Screen Actors Guild,” he said, ” a small amount of social security, and so many other increases, and in the meantime Yale is not paying any taxes. Look to all that untaxed property for a solution too.”

Ken Joyner, from Newhallville, who had attended some of the city-sponsored budget workshops, called attention to the long-range tax issues in the city, which, he warned are utterly not being addressed in the mayor’s proposals.

“I endorse the mayor’s freeze,” he said, “but relief must be spread across the board. By 2012, when the baby boomers retire, the budget is going to balloon.”

In closing remarks, Smuts asked the alders to address possible modifications in the proposal, such as whether the benefit should be capped at a certain value, if eligibility should be universal (that is, should a third step be perhaps reduced eligibility or none for households earning over $100,000?). Such modifications, he said, could increase or reduce the city’s financial exposure. And he urged the alders to act expeditiously or the freeze, if passed, will not be administered this year.