Legislature(2001 - 2002)
03/28/2001 01:37 PM Senate CRA
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* first hearing in first committee of referral
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= bill was previously heard/scheduled
+ teleconferenced
= bill was previously heard/scheduled
HB 118-SR CIT./DISABLED VET. PROP TAX EXEMPTION
Lori Backes, staff to Representative Whittaker introduced the bill
and explained that HB 118 allows municipalities to establish, by
their own ordinance, methods for accepting applications for the
senior citizen, disabled veterans, and widows and widowers property
tax exemption. Under current state law, these citizens must file
yearly for this exemption and Representative Whittaker thought it
was best that communities establish their own procedures for
accepting these applications. For example, he thought it was unfair
that seniors had to apply yearly for the exemption when the general
residential property tax exemption could be made on a one time
basis.
SENATOR PHILLIPS asked if he was correct that, at the local option,
a senior citizen would have to file just once for a property tax
exemption.
MS. BACKES said that is correct if that is the choice of the
municipality.
SENATOR PHILLIPS asked how the municipality would check to see
whether the seniors had moved and their non-senior children were
now occupying the house.
MS. BACKES said that would be addressed the same way that
municipalities currently address that situation; the house would no
longer qualify for the exemption.
SENATOR PHILLIPS thought he was missing some point; registering for
the exemption just once could invite fraud.
MS. BACKES said that municipalities could set their own methods for
checking that the exemptions were allowable. One suggestion is that
a reminder or question card could be sent on a yearly basis asking
whether the individual still lives at the same location. If the
card isn't sent back, that residence should be checked.
SENATOR PHILLIPS thought that people would cheat.
CHAIRMAN TORGERSON asked Steve Van Sant to address Senator
Phillips' concerns.
STEVE VAN SANT, local assessor for the Department of Community and
Economic Development, responded that they have this problem now.
There is a small percentage of senior citizens throughout the state
who sign that they live at a particular residence when they really
don't live there. There is a safeguard that the local municipality
can put in whereby certain requirements must be met and the
assessors expect that those procedures would be written in so that
they would be able to check if there was a question. There is no
perfect solution, however.
SENATOR PHILLIPS asked whether it would be mandatory to include
procedures for checking or not.
MR. VAN SANT said the bill says, "…shall by ordinance establish
procedures." Within those procedures each municipality has
latitude.
SENATOR PHILLIPS said this is non-mandatory.
MR. VAN SANT agreed.
CHAIRMAN TORGERSON asked whether assessors generally support the
bill.
MR. VAN SANT said they do generally but the one concern they have
is on page 1, line 14 where "for that year" is removed. If an
individual asks for an exemption to be retroactive for several
years there would be no way for the assessor to go back and check
whether they met criteria for the exemption.
CHAIRMAN TORGERSON asked for confirmation that removing "for that
year" might make this retroactive.
MR. VAN SANT said he believed it would. To this point, that
language has been used to mean that the governing body may only
waive an application late file for that year only. It cannot be
retroactive.
MS. BACKES responded that it hinges upon the word "may" in line 13.
"The governing body of the municipality for good cause shown may
waive…" It would be a borough or municipal assembly decision to
waive the application or not waive it. This allows the applicant
the opportunity to appeal the decision. Without the change in
language, local municipalities can only address that type of
situation during that current application year.
SENATOR LINCOLN spoke about a woman from Fairbanks who was ill and
didn't realize that she had to request a waiver. The borough said
its hands were tied because they weren't allowed to waive that year
or prior years.
MS. BACKES was familiar with the case and said that she wasn't ill
but illiterate and didn't know that she had to file more than once.
By the time the borough noticed the problem, she was many years in
arrears and her property was foreclosed upon. The borough said that
state statute would not allow them to go back and look at
extenuating circumstances.
SENATOR LINCOLN said that she would leave the language out due to
cases such as that. The local government should be able to make
those decisions.
CHAIRMAN TORGERSON asked if the money being discussed was local
with no State treasury affect.
MR. VAN SANT said that was correct, the legislature "hasn't funded
this since 1996."
CHAIRMAN TORGERSON said he knew that, he just wanted it on the
record.
There were no other questions or individuals giving testimony.
He asked for the will of the committee.
SENATOR AUSTERMAN moved HB 118 and zero fiscal note from committee
with individual recommendations. There were no objections.
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