Donations for Elderly and Disabled Tax Fund in 2018 lag prior years

The season of giving is once again upon us, and the Elderly and Disabled Taxation Aid Committee is hoping that some of that giving might boost next year’s fund donations after a lackluster 2018. While 2017 donations totaled more than $15,000, this year’s total so far, with only a few weeks left till the end of the year, is only $9,800.

Established by Town Meeting in 2002, the Elderly and Disabled Tax Fund uses annual donations to defray property tax costs for Harvard’s neediest residents. In the first five years, the fund saw average yearly donation totals of $13,000. Donations fell dramatically during the Great Recession (2008-2010) but rebounded to an average of $17,000 in the years that followed. In 2015 and 2016, however, totals dropped to around $12,000.

Committee Chair Ann Taylor said both the number of donations and the amounts people gave were lower this year. Adding to the problem is a decline in the number of private trusts that contribute to the fund—it’s now down to one. Luckily, Taylor said, the number of residents applying for aid was lower this year, but the need was still not fully met. Aid can be anywhere from 30 to 100 percent of a property tax bill, although 100 percent is rare.

The committee determines which applicants will receive aid and how much that aid will be based on how much money is in the fund and the applicant’s income, assets, and any extraordinary circumstances. While the committee tracks its donations by calendar year, most of its donations arrive in the first six months of the year when the committee sends out its appeal letters. Funds that are available by June are granted, and the aid is spread out over the four quarters of the fiscal year that begins on July 1. A small amount of money is held in reserve for printing the next year’s appeal letters. In 2019, those letters will go out in February with excise tax bills and June with property tax bills. Taylor said the committee decided to mail appeal letters in the June tax bill instead of the January tax bill next year in hopes that spreading out the appeals might bring in more donations and kickstart the fund for the following fiscal year.

At Annual Town Meeting this year, residents voted to authorize the town to petition the state legislature to allow Harvard to establish a cap on property taxes for means-tested senior citizens, but the petition is still under consideration in legislature. (It was sent to the House Committee on Bills in the Third Reading on Dec. 3.) That measure is also intended to help the neediest seniors in town, but it is more restrictive, exempting at most half of an applicant’s property tax bill. No such restriction is placed on the Elderly and Disabled Tax Fund, which also helps disabled residents.

Taylor said the committee grants aid to only a handful of people, but it helps that handful keep their homes. “These people are truly in need,” she said. “I don’t know what they’d do without this help.”