Barre should have given senior citizens a tax break

Editor:

In canvasing the area to discuss the opportunities our neighbors have for elections, we have found an underlying theme. For those over 65 there is a huge concern for taxes and how to pay them on a fixed income.

However, more than a year ago, in September of 2018, Dawn Allen, the Real Property Tax Director for Orleans County, gave a presentation informing the Barre Town Board that Barre is the only town in Orleans County that is not giving the lower-income senior citizens a tax break that could amount to 20 to 50% off their town tax bill.

To me it seemed like a no brainer. Of course, we would want to help out our senior citizens that are on a fixed income with this tax break. A year later, I called the tax director Dawn Allen to see if indeed our Town Board had followed her advice. Dawn’s reply was that we remained the only town in Orleans County that was not offering a tax break to these seniors.

The idea that the tax break proposed by Ms. Allen may have been overlooked in order to make the less palatable tax break from the possibility of industrial wind turbines seem more attractive regardless of the inherent evils and to further the interest of members of the town board seems reproachable. One certainly does wonder though, why didn’t they pass it then?

Iva Mckenna

Barre