By David R. Smith

The fate of a proposal to increase the city’s residential tax exemption from 30 to 35 percent is now in the hands of the state Legislature after the Board of Aldermen approved the request from Mayor Joseph Curtatone at its meeting March 27.

“I want to thank the mayor for submitting that request,” BOA President Bill White said.  “The call is now with the state Legislature.”

Aldermen discussed the increase this past winter during a public hearing held to allow property owners a chance to vent after a state-required triennial valuation of properties increased many people’s tax bills from 1 to, in some cases, 50 percent or more. Prior to that meeting, the assessor’s department held a handful of public meetings to explain the valuation process.

“I think it’s important that when scheduled (at the State House), as many of us as possible attend,” White said. “The feeling at the state Legislature might be viewed as an additional tax, and there may not be an appetite to approve it.”

State law allows only a 20 percent residential tax exemption. The city successfully petitioned to have that increased to 30 percent. The proposal to go from 30 to 35 percent would also require approval at the state level for the city’s home rule petition.

“The purpose of this is to promote residential home ownership in communities that have large numbers of absentee homeowners,” White said.

A third of the city’s residential properties are owned by people who do not live in those properties, and White noted such exemptions would not work in communities where an overwhelming of properties are owner-occupied.

“This shifts the tax to the absentee landlords,” White said, noting this issue was first studied more than a decade ago under former Mayor Dorothy Kelly Gay,

The move, White said, would aid in-city property owners, as well as the people who rent from them.

“We have to help them, and this a good way to help them,” he said.