City officials will consider a tax exemption for seniors over the age of 65, similar to what Genesee County passed in late February.
The county’s exemption of Section 467 of the Real Property Tax Law grants a reduction in the amount of taxes paid by senior citizens based on a sliding scale of income amounts from less than $23,800 for a 50% exemption up to $32,200 for 5%.
Deputy County Treasurer Kevin Andrews proposed the move earlier this year for the county and also emailed the city about this municipality considering doing a similar exemption, City Manager Rachael Tabelski said this week.
“And it's something. If you'd like, we can have staff look into it and get back to you with a recommendation at a future meeting,” she said during Monday’s City Council meeting. “We do know that it would affect the taxable status of properties to the tune of about $2.6 million, but as a whole, in terms of how much our entire assessment value is, this is a very, very small percentage. So, like I said, we can come back to this if you'd like us to email the information so you can take a look at it and get a little better analysis of what that would look like if we were to implement it.”
City Council President Eugene Jankowski Jr. said that “it's definitely worth looking into” the exemption as an option for seniors to save some money.
“Anything we can do to help people keep their homes and sustain their homes,” he said. “If they’re qualified for the exemption, then they definitely should be getting it.”
When the county approved the measure that took effect on March 1, The Batavian asked Andrews for a tangible example of how much savings that could mean for an eligible senior. At the maximum end of the scale, if the income qualifies and they were to receive 50 percent exemption on their taxes with a home assessed at $100,000, that would equal roughly a $400 savings for county tax purposes, he said. County taxes for 2024 are $5.80 per $1,000 assessed value versus city at $8.96 per $1,000.
The full table for the county is below to show how the sliding scale works:
- Less than $23,800 - 50%
- Equal or more than $23,800 but less than $24,800 - 45%
- $24,800 but less than $25,800 - 40%
- $25,800 but less than $26,800 - 35%
- $26,800 but less than $27,700 - 30%
- $27,700 but less than $28,600 - 25%
- $28,600 but less than $29,500 - 20%
- $29,500 but less than $30,400 - 15%
- $30,400 but less than $31,300 - 10%
- $31,300 but less than $32,200 - 5%
