To the Editor:

We are told that, under the STAR exemption, the taxable value of our property is reduced by $62,300. This is either a joke or a deception. The maximum allowable STAR savings is $1264.00. At the present school tax rate of $26.09 per $1000, that would be the full tax on a property assessed at $48,440. That is, in reality, the maximum amount by which the taxable value of our property can be reduced.  

More important is the subterfuge regarding the senior exemption. Two years ago I was collecting $740 per month from Social Security. I do have other income, but I qualified for the senior exemption and paid $46.63 in school taxes. Last year I was collecting $815 per month from Social Security, an increase of 10% due primarily to the cost of living adjustment. Now I no longer qualify for the senior exemption, and my school tax bill is $797.30 – seventeen times what it was last year.

For many long years, the school board has not adjusted the income limit for the senior exemption. Your income, from all sources, must be less than $19,200 in order to qualify. I cannot be the only one who lost his senior exemption because of the cost of living adjustment to the Social Security payments. And what is worse -- imagine a recently retired person collecting Social Security for the first time, with no other source of income. Nationwide, the average Social Security payment is $1760.30 per month, or $21,123.60 per year. That is too much money, almost $2000 over the limit.  Such a person, on a fixed income, would not qualify for the senior exemption. The absurdity is evident on its face.

To qualify for the senior exemption for town and village taxes, your income must be less than $28,400 per year. There is no excuse for the school board not to raise its income limit to equal that of the town and village. The school district will not lose any money on the deal. The total amount of revenue collected will stay the same. The total assessed property value for school tax purposes will be reduced, and the tax rate per $1000 will increase accordingly, but less of the burden will fall upon the backs of elderly citizens on fixed incomes. Are these not the persons for whom the senior exemption was intended?

Richard Hayes Phillips
Canton