Consideration For Our Seniors

To the Editor:

An open letter to our Board of Selectmen and Legislative Council:

It is time we consider our seniors and how to keep them from moving out of our town. I would like to recommend that the selectmen form a task force to address this question.

I have seen too many of our seniors leave Newtown because of our tax structure. Many other communities give their senior citizens some form of tax relief. There are many reasons that something should be done:

*Most seniors would like to continue living here and contribute their time and talent to the community.

*Many serve as volunteers to our houses of worship, service organizations and clubs, and bring to our community their experience and expertise.

*When a senior household without children moves away, it is usually replaced with a family, often with several children. The savings of educational service alone should be reason enough.

*Most important, we care about them and do not want them to leave.

I believe that we can begin by looking at a homestead exemption or a tax cap, and targeted tax breaks that are given only to particular groups of low-income and middle-income taxpayers. One increasingly popular type of targeted property tax relief, called a “circuit breaker,” establishes a property tax exemption for senior citizens. I know that we have tax relief for low-income seniors but that is not enough to keep many of our seniors from leaving. Let’s show our seniors that we want them to stay and that we appreciate all they do and have done for our community.

Frank R. DeLucia

4 Hyvue Drive, Newtown                                                   July 15, 2008