Retirement News : Seniors : Seniors confront governor as he offers tax-break plan

Seniors confront governor as he offers tax-break plan

Date Added: 01-04-2005

Governor Mitt Romney used a Mattapan retiree's front porch yesterday as a stage to unveil a series of proposed tax breaks for Massachusetts senior citizens and to smooth over recent comments on the subject by Lieutenant Governor Kerry Healey.

Governor Mitt Romney used a Mattapan retiree's front porch yesterday as a stage to unveil a series of proposed tax breaks for Massachusetts senior citizens and to smooth over recent comments on the subject by Lieutenant Governor Kerry Healey.

Healey's remarks drew an immediate angry response last week from senior citizen advocates because she suggested that property tax breaks for senior citizens would keep them ''overhoused and isolated" by encouraging them to remain in their spacious suburban homes.

A small group of senior citizens from the Mattapan neighborhood showed up to voice their concerns at yesterday's event, creating a rare unscripted moment for Romney.

One local woman voiced her outrage, while others insisted that Romney and Healey speak with them after the event.

''Reading in the paper about what the lieutenant governor said last week, it was quite upsetting about how seniors should just move out because they only use one room out of your whole house," Leola Coleman, 74, of Mattapan said to Healey.

''But I think we should have the privilege to do that if we want to," Coleman said. ''And you know what I mean, like we have to leave and give up our homes because of the baby boomers."

Healey said her comments were misinterpreted, contending that they were aimed at only one aspect of the Romney administration's housing policy, which also seeks to increase multifamily housing in areas clustered near mass transit facilities and city centers.

''I'm so glad to have the opportunity to set the record straight here today, and I don't blame you for being concerned, because if I had said that, it would be upsetting," Healey told the crowd. ''But what we're saying today is the whole picture."

The Romney proposal announced yesterday, if approved by the Legislature, would greatly expand the pool of senior citizen homeowners who qualify for a property-tax deferral program and would reduce the interest rate on such deferments from 8 percent to 3 percent.

In addition, the plan would give a $10,000 exemption to those who house and care for elderly relatives and a $2,000 deduction for seniors who buy doctor-prescribed medical equipment that allows them to continue living in their own homes.

The legislative package -- Creating Housing Options with Independence and Caring for our Elders, or CHOICE -- seeks to make it easier for senior citizens to stay in their own homes, Romney said.

His policy goal appeared to be vastly different from the one expressed earlier this month by Healey, who told a wire service reporter that state tax policy should not make it easier for seniors to stay in their rambling suburban homes while fledgling families look for affordable housing.

''My opinion is that to extend tax breaks to seniors in order to keep them overhoused and isolated in the suburbs is not necessarily the right answer," Healey told a State House News Service reporter in an interview published last week. ''It's an answer, but the best answer would be to bring them into our city and town centers, into more appropriate housing, and free up those properties to get back on the tax rolls of the community."

For More Information:

http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2005/03/31/seniors_confront_governor_as_he_offers_tax_break_plan/