Why Limit Programs Like This to Seniors?

[amykhar]

Town wants to let seniors work off taxes - CNN.com

Our local school district has a similar deal. Seniors can volunteer for 100 hours in the year at the school in exchange for money off their tax bill. There is no income restriction.

My problem is this. If these programs are designed to help low-income seniors deal with high taxes, and if the jobs are truly useful ones and not just busywork, why not open the program up to people of all ages based on income?

If the work is busywork and not truly needed, then apparently, the community is bringing in too much tax money and should consider reducing taxes for all.

Amy

[frazzledspice]

Compared to many cities, this isn't that generous a deal for seniors.

Since we're talking about NY, my Dad has a senior citizen property tax abatement, and although there is an income limitation involved, he would not be considered "low" income by any stretch of the imagination.

When my hubby turns 65 in 5 years, if we are still living here, our assessed valuation will never increase. Never. And that's regardless of our income.

The only way our assessed valuation could increase would be if we built an addition on to our home (unlikely when we would have an empty nest.)

And letting them work off their taxes by crediting them $7 an hour, even if they are retired lawyers or doctors? Most younger people could get a better deal than that working overtime or moonlighting.

That's not to say that such a deal should be restricted to seniors, just that it's not "such a deal."

[drmomentum[$]]

If a younger person were paying a total of 33% in income taxes, then a credit of $8.50, like in Cambridge, is equivalent to making over $12.50/hour.

I expect retired lawyers and doctors are not the bulk of the target demographic.

[mjfrombuffalo[$]]

Probably because there's an expectation that seniors' current and future earning opportunities are limited, while younger people's opportunities are not. So it's an idea aimed at a demographic. Opening it up would lose the benefit meant for that demographic, especially if they get crowded out by other taxpayers/workers.

Head Start started to give a boost to poor children after research showed they were far underperforming their peers when entering kindergarten. Initial follow-up showed it worked - the poorer kids were scoring higher and were on a par with their peers. Middle-class parents started to say, "Well if it's so good, why can't my kids do it?" and soon the income boundaries rose. Now, between Head Start and private day care, kids enter kindergarten smarter... and the poorer kids are waaaay at the bottom of the scores again.

I see the senior tax thing like the kids - this particular demographic will have harder problems finding income through normal means to pay their taxes, so the town wants to give them a way to contribute in kind instead. If it's opened to the low income middle-aged folks, who can conceivably take on a second job elsewhere instead, there will be fewer slots for the elderly and the purpose of the program (help the elderly pay taxes) will be lost.

BTW, Weschester County (where this town is) is really an expensive place to live, difficult to get by on anything but a solid six-figure family income. The town is probably trying, like Nassau County talks about, to come up with ways that their older residents aren't shoved out of town and separated from their families/friends/life-long communities as a result of their fixed incomes not keeping up with local inflation.

[realtraveller]

If everyone did volunteer work to pay off property taxes, where would the cash for the bureaucratic slush funds come from?

[drmomentum[$]]

Following on Kathy's post, Halliburton called and they want everyone in this thread investigated for domestic terrorism.

[pippadaisy[$]]

I think where Amy's coming from is that if it's so valuable to a town to have people in the schools volunteering and/or they don't have enough parents volunteering, extending the program outside the senior citizens could also help out famlies who are struggling. My kids' school is constantly begging for volunteers, but the problem is that either both parents work, or you have families like mine who can't volunteer because we can't bring the younger sibs in. I sure don't have money for daycare for my younger kids to go volunteer for my older ones, but if that sort of credit was extended to me for the time I volunteered? It might help to offset it.

Seniors aren't the only ones who struggle to pay bills.