Delaware

HB194 – Phasing out School Property Tax Credit

The General Assembly has already passed HB99, which limits the availability of the school property tax credit for seniors over the age of 65 to those who have been residents of the state of Delaware for three years.   This Republican bill phases out the school property tax credit for residents age 65 or older entirely, by eliminating eligibility for those born after 1967 (currently age 50).  So if you are born after 1967, this tax credit will be available to you when you turn 65.   If you are currently benefiting from the tax credit, you will still enjoy it.

So basically this is one final “fuck you” from the Baby Boomer Generation to Generation X and the Millennials.   Well no, that will come when the Baby Boomers end Social Security and Medicare after they are finished benefiting from it.

AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 14 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO SCHOOL PROPERTY TAX CREDITS.
DATE UPDATED: 6/9/2017
SPONSORS: Spiegelman, Lavelle, Hudson, D.Short, Wilson
YES VOTES – SENATE:
YES VOTES – HOUSE
NO VOTES – SENATE:
NO VOTES – SENATE:
HISTORY – House Administration 6/1/17
STATUS – Waiting on a hearing in committee.
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14 comments on “HB194 – Phasing out School Property Tax Credit

  1. Well, I guess we’ve turned enough seniors against schools and school referenda now, huh? Not much more we can do to entrench seniors against school children and in some cases their own future grandchildren.

    Spiegelman & Lavelle: “Hold our beers.”

    • dthompon3662

      Brian wins the internet today. That imade me LOL in real life, not just this internet fake lol. I’m talking real LOL action

    • That is because the schools can’t budget and waste the homeowners money! Just look at Sussex Tech. Before a referendum, an audit of the books should be done. Don’t want your financials, audited, no more extra money.

      • Sussex Tech is a VoTech school. They don’t do referenda. Their money is appropriated by the General Assembly as a line item on the budget.

        • Brian, maybe I should have rephrased that. Any entity, receiving monies from the state, should be audited, period. Let’s look at Bloom Energy, they are receiving monies from us and no-one is looking over their shoulder.
          I feel the public schools are the same, I and others feel they just spend and are clearly not held responsible for their finances. That is why I will always vote NO, for any referendum.

          • I’ll never deny we need better transparency on public education financials, but there’s overwhelming evidence that “they just spend and are clearly not held responsible for their finances” is a blatant lie and it is not even hard to find:

            If your (and others’) belief were true, you would see school districts out for referendum EVERY year. And you don’t see that.

    • Au contraire, my father and an aunt were teachers, seniors always turn out in great numbers to vote against school referendums and have done so for longer than any of us have been living.

      • LJ Quinn

        bamboozer— the plural of referendum is “referenda”

  2. I think there’s a “not” missing in the post — shouldn’t it be:
    “So if you are born after 1967, this tax credit will NOT be available to you when you turn 65. If you are currently benefiting from the tax credit, you will still enjoy it.”

  3. The tax credit never should have been granted in the first place. The whole idea of reduced prices for seniors was based on the meme of “fixed income,” meaning they didn’t get raises while workers did. Now that workers no longer get raises, a “fixed income” isn’t such a bad thing. At least they can’t be forced to take pay cuts.

    At any rate, it was a bullshit sop to win votes in the first place. It should be ended, period. And I say that as someone who benefits from it.

  4. Sally Price

    I always vote for school referenda because I don’t want poorly educated people f-ing things up for me and my children. There are a lot of people, over the age of 65, who do live on very small, fixed incomes. We just qualified for this tax credit this year. I never heard about it before. I’d be happy to give it up.

  5. I do not think age based government benefits like tax deductions make any sense. If we are allocating these type benefits it in my opinion should be based upon income not age.

  6. The smart thing would be to means test the senior tax credit.

  7. The elephant in the room, of course, is the developer community. Who is getting rich every time acreage is turned? Who’s quality of life is being compromised with uncontrolled growth in the county? Are developers accountable for the quality of life? Should they take serious responsibility for the increasing inconvenience we experience (traffic, infrastructure strain)?Want to close a budget shortfall? Look no further and leave the tax credit for seniors as it was. Seniors already subsidize services their neighbors’ kids use.

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