Gray is slapping all seniors citizen in the face along with pricing us out of being able to stay in our homes.

They came up with a new senior property tax assistance program and then today (July 20) decided to amend it. Before, property owners who had lived in Gray for 10 years qualified for a rebate if they made less then $49,950 in adjusted gross income, paid their taxes for the past year, and were 70 or older at the time of the application. The rebate amounted to the lesser of the difference between 5% of your adjusted gross income and a cap of $3,500 in taxes, up to a $500 rebate.

Mind you, it has to be applied for before Aug. 1, and July 20 they decided to amend it to read if you paid more then $3,500 in taxes you didn’t qualify. Can someone please tell me how on God’s green earth this even makes sense? If I am paying more than $3,500 on the same amount of adjusted gross income it would seem that I might be even more in need of assistance, not that I should be disqualified.

I spoke with the town assessor on Friday and was qualified and then today was sent an email saying, “Oh, sorry, you don’t qualify cause it is only meant for residents with annual property taxes of $3,500 or less and you paid $3,924.98.”

So watch out, Gray, as the mil rate goes up and the evaluations rise you will lose the miserly little $500 they are giving. This is a huge slap in the face to seniors.

Jan Strout
Gray