Should younger taxpayers and non-homeowners subsidize senior citizens buying $300,000 houses to retire here? That is the essence of the proposition to freeze senior citizen property taxes that College Station will vote on next month. This liberal-sounding notion looks appealing, but the reality is that it is actually a subsidy to wealthy homeowners masquerading as helping poor seniors.
If passed, this proposition means that even as the value of their houses increases, seniors will not pay any more in taxes. The people who will benefit most will be seniors buying large homes to retire here, secure in the knowledge they will never pay their fair share of taxes.
While a good break for them, it's a bad deal for the community as a whole. According to The Eagle, if the tax freeze passes, the city could lose as much as $3.2 million over 10 years. Jim Keblinger, who organized the proposition, has stated finding this lost revenue is not his concern but the city council's. He'll get his tax break and the rest of us, well, we'll either pay more or make do with fewer city services.
What Keblinger and his supporters have not publicized is that College Station already exempts from property taxes the first $30,000 of a senior's house. In 2006, 1,821 senior citizens claimed this exemption. If the tax-freeze supporters were truly concerned about helping low-income seniors, they would have proposed raising that tax exemption from the current $30,000 to the median cost of a house. That would ease the cost of retirement for people with low to moderate incomes without overly subsidizing wealthy senior citizens.
In February, 2008 the median price of a house in Bryan-College Station was $130,000, meaning half of the houses sold for more than and half for less than $130,000. Raising the city's senior tax exemption to $130,000 would reduce the property tax by $439.40.
Instead of that reasonable proposal, we are asked to vote on a measure that would benefit rich citizens far more than their poor brethren. I appreciate senior citizens. Indeed, I hope to become one myself some day, but I also appreciate that being a citizen means a shared sense of responsibility, and that includes paying for the services we want.
Sadly, the tax freeze could actually hurt the quality of life for seniors here. If the freeze passes, community support for a senior center would probably diminish. After all, if the users of the proposed center don't want to help pay for it, why should everyone else?
Voters should reject this proposal and instead ask the College Station City Council to raise the tax exemption for seniors to the median value of a house. This would directly benefit those most in need while lowering the potential tax burden for all of us.
• Jonathan Coopersmith lives in College Station.
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