Council votes to grant residents tax credit relief

Tuesday, Nov. 22, 2005

The Kensington Town Council voted to set a lower town property tax at its last work session.

The council voted 2-1 on Nov. 7 to lower the Homestead Tax Credit by 5 percent, giving residents some relief on their town property tax.

The Homestead Tax Credit, which is set at 10 percent for town, county and state property taxes, is a program designed to help homeowners handle large assessment increases. The program sets a cap for how much a homeowner’s taxes increase each year.

Councilman Al Carr said adopting the Homestead Tax Credit would shift approximately $12,000 of town property tax burden from residential homes to commercial properties. Currently, there are about 400 owner-occupied residential homes in Kensington, he said, and residential assessments have been rising up to 15 percent in the past six years.

The program will provide ‘‘modest tax relief” of $30 per year on the resident’s town property tax, but it will not affect the town’s revenue, Carr said. However, he did not have any actual numbers available.

Mayor Lynn Raufaste said she is concerned because she thinks adopting the Homestead Tax Credit program should have been discussed in the budget review. And that Kensington will be the first municipality in Montgomery County to adopt the program without the public input is another factor that concerns the mayor.

‘‘There has to be a reason for that,” Raufaste said. ‘‘This has been approved without the citizens input or knowledge.”

The proposal was approved with the vote of 2-1 with Councilman Kenneth Goldsmith on a prearranged absence.

The new tax cap will go into effect beginning July 1.

Goldsmith said in an e-mail that he was uncertain if his presence would have changed the council’s decision, but he would have asked for a clear explanation.

‘‘The council will remain accountable for its decisions,” he said.

To be eligible for the town property tax cap, residents must qualify as primary homeowners, meaning they have owned the property for at least six months of the year, according to state Department of Assessment and Taxation.

The proposal was discussed at the Oct. 24 meeting, but was adopted without introducing or holding a public hearing, according to Kensington Clerk and Treasurer, Susan Engels.

This is the first time a change was made related to the budget at a work session, said Raufaste in a telephone interview after the Nov. 7 work session.

At the session, she said she strongly opposed the tax cap because ‘‘it should be an issue brought up to the public first, it should be discussed at the budget and it’s illegal to put citizens out of right to know, especially regarding taxes.”

However, Carr said he took immediate action because it would have cost a wait of more than a year, if the council didn’t approve the proposal by Nov. 25.

Carr requested a public hearing on the issue on Nov. 21, but it was not approved.

Staff recommendationfor a variance

The Kensington building inspector will make recommendations on all future zoning variances before the Town Council approves them, the council said.

The council agreed with Kensington building inspector Neil Stablow’s proposal that he will review and recommend variance approvals.

Residents are required to get a variance for buildings that don’t conform to the town’s zoning ordinance.

The zoning ordinance is defined to set limits to what the residents or local businesses can build.

Residents must submit variance applications ahead of the Town Council meetings and Stablow will make recommendations to the council before it votes on the case at the meetings, Stablow said.

Before this agreement was reached, residents had to present their cases at the Town Council meetings to get the variance approved. The residents will still have an opportunity to present their cases at the meetings, but the recommendation can help get the approval, Stablow said.

‘‘It’s always good to have recommendation,” Raufaste said.

Evaluation on snow removal survey

The snow surveys that were completed Oct. 30 by residents and businesses indicated the town should continue with similar snow removal procedures as last year, Raufaste said.

The original town law requires residents to clear their side streets within 24 hours of a snowstorm and a warning is issued, if residents fail to shovel. But an extra day is allowed to comply before residents face fines ranging from $65 for individuals to $195 for businesses.

Councilwoman Leanne Pfautz compiled the surveys after the work session.

In September, Council members Leanne Pfautz and Kenneth Goldsmith created surveys to ask the residents and businesses who they think should clear snow and whether the town should remove snow from certain homes.

‘‘We decided to do the survey because there have been certain questions on whether clearing the snow is the resident’s responsibility or the town’s responsibility in the context of exceptions for residents over a certain age or with disabilities,” Pfautz said.

A number of surveys suggested the town should develop a list of people or business the residents can contact, if they can’t do the cleaning, Raufaste said. The town doesn’t have many people on the list and anyone interested is encouraged to call the town office, she said.

Another resident asked the town to remove snow from disabled people’s homes, but Raufaste said the term ‘‘special needs” should be defined before proceeding with the suggestion.

The town will clear the sidewalks on state roads, but the removal of snow on side streets is still the responsibility of residents and businesses, Raufaste said.