The petition
This petition is to force Governor Manchin and the next legislature to amend 2008’s Bill 239 on Tax Income Base Deferment. It sounds good at first. Seniors with income $25,000 or less may have their property tax increase only frozen at their current rate. However, those deferred taxes would accumulate. If you sell the property, or pass away and someone inherits, the taxes deferred must be paid before clear title is issued. Or, it would be sold out from under you. Basically, this a lien.
We are against the freeze as it currently stands, because the only tax relief is at current rate which is too high anyway for most of us. At $25,000 or less income requirement, most people wouldn’t even qualify.
The legislature let us down by not doing something about the Homestead Exemption. Why not just fix the Homestead Exemption or do something to help low income taxpayers also?
Our suggestion was to increase the Homestead Exemption from $20,000 to $50,000 and use cost of living index to automatically increase it.
As it is, most of the E. Panhandle carries the rest of the state in tax base.
Sign the petition
Fields marked * are required.