Many Sudbury seniors to get property tax breaks

Roughly 70 percent of Sudbury voters on Dec. 6 approved a measure that will cap property taxes for lower-income seniors based on their household income.

The measure, which will take effect at the start of the new fiscal year in July, is believed to be the first of its kind among Massachusetts cities and towns. Gov. Deval Patrick last summer signed a home-rule petition that enabled the Sudbury program.

According to a statement issued by the town, the new program will include two features distinct from the state’s “circuit breaker” tax credit and other policies that benefit senior homeowners.

The first is that the Sudbury program aims to cap property taxes at 10 percent of the household income of qualifying seniors. Each applicant’s exemption will be separately calculated. The second distinctive feature is that the money for the program will not come from a designated account but from what town officials describe as a “burden shift” within the general tax levy to residential properties.

“In order to generate the total amount of residential property taxes needed to provide for this new exemption, the Board of Assessors shall need to increase the tax rate for all residential taxpayers,” including seniors, according to the town’s statement.

To qualify, seniors must live in the property they own and must have resided in Sudbury for at least 10 years. The value of their home must not exceed 110 percent of the previous year’s average assessed value of a single-family home in Sudbury. In the previous fiscal year, the average was roughly $621,000.

The Sudbury Finance Department will be working out additional details about how the program will be administered, according to Town Manager Maureen Valente.