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From YouTube: Committee on Government Operations on April 13, 2017
Description
Docket #0517 - Home Rule Petition re: Ownership and Occupancy Deadline for Residential Property Tax Exemptions in the City of Boston
A
And
gentlemen,
my
name
is
city
councilor,
at-large,
Michael,
Flaherty
joined
by
my
colleague,
City
Council
of
mark
t,
amo,
chair
of
ways
and
means-
and
we
are
here
today
to
discuss
docket
05
17
and
it's
in
order
approving
a
petition
or
special
are
regarding
an
act
relative
to
the
ownership
and
occupancy
deadline
for
residential
property
exemptions
in
the
city
of
austin.
This
matter,
responsered
by
City
Council,
mark
co
mo
and
referred
to
committee
back
on
April
laughs.
A
If
this
matter
is
a
home
rule
petition
to
amend
the
current
ownership
and
occupancy
deadline
for
residential
property
exemptions
in
the
city
of
austin,
the
home
rule
petition
proposes
to
allow
taxpayers
who
obtain
their
principal
residence
after
january,
first
and
before
july,
first
to
receive
the
residential
exemption
for
the
transfer
year,
as
opposed
to
waiting
a
whole
year
and
a
half
in
order
to
receive
the
residential
exemption.
I'd
like
to
acknowledge
my
colleague
and
congratulate
his
efforts
who
respond
to
the
SATs
council,
siamo
and
also
joining
us
from
the
city
on
behalf
of
the
administration.
B
Want
to
thank
you
for
expediting
this
hearing
and
for
all
the
work
Commissioner
that
you
work
with
me
on
and
it's
being
behind
us
and
my
own
staff
for
coming
up
with
something
that
I
think
will
serve
the
CID
the
entire
city
very
well,
and
encourage
more
homeownership
and
get
the
exemption
to
the
people,
especially
first-time
homebuyers.
You
know.
Obviously
we
have
a
you
know:
values
of
going
up
tremendously.
B
People
are
finding
it
hard
to
scrape
together
all
the
money
necessary
to
put
down
in
closing
costs
in
any
way
that
we
can
help
them
get
into
their
home
more
easily.
I
think
is
a
good
thing,
so
I
want
to
thank
you
Commissioner
for
helping
me
craft
this
and
bring
it
forward
and
hopefully
get
it
to
leave
I
just
later.
Thank.
C
You,
mr.
chairman,
for
the
record,
my
name
is
Ron
Rocco
I'm,
the
Commissioner
of
the
assessing
Department
happy
to
be
here
today,
and
this
is
really
kind
of
a
reflection
of
process
that
we
started
with
councillor
siamo
really
months
ago
and
try
to
work
through
an
issue
that
I
think
we've
struggled
with.
You
know
for
quite
a
while.
The
residential
exemption
that
we
have
available
today
is
great
I
mean
it's
it's
one
of
those
things
that
really
helps
I
think
keep
taxes
in
the
cost
of
homeownership
down
in
the
city
of
Boston.
C
It
keeps
their
tax
rates
very
competitive
this
year,
with,
with
your
help
and
some
help
from
the
legislature,
we
were
able
to
increase
the
residential
exemption
amount
to
almost
twenty
four
hundred
dollars.
So
it's
a
really
big
tax
benefit,
but
one
of
the
things
that
his
historically
happened
is
that
the
qualification
date
for
the
residential
exemption
is
January
first
before
the
beginning
of
the
fiscal
year,
and
we've
had
taxpayers
who
purchase
a
property
after
that
January
first
date.
C
But
before
the
beginning
of
fiscal
year
from
a
homeowner
who
worked
wasn't
previously
receiving
the
residential
exemption,
they
would
not
be
able
to
apply
for
the
exemption
until
the
following
fiscal
year,
so
they
basically
have
to
go
for
a
whole
year
in
today's
in
today's
real
estate
environment,
where
it's
really
challenging
I.
Think
for
new
homeowners
to
scrape
up
the
dollars
that
to
buy
a
house
or
whatnot
the
fact
that
you
actually
have
to
pay
an
extra
twenty
four
hundred
dollars
on
your
tactical
for
a
year.
It
isn't
helpful
for
that
situation.
C
So
what
we
were
looking
for
is
a
solution
where
we
could
amend
the
general
laws
in
a
way
that
would
allow
us
to
let
people
when
they
buy
a
property,
to
extend
that
effective
date
to
July
first
to
the
beginning
of
the
fiscal
year.
So
if
you
buy
the
property
after
January
first,
but
before
june
thirtieth,
we
can
include
you
in
the
process
that
we
use
to
award
new
exemptions
and
apply
for
new
exemptions
and
therefore
the
homeowners
in
those
situations
would
be
able
to
get
the
residential
exemption
year
earlier.
C
We
want
to
give
this
to
people
who
are
deserving
of
it,
but
we
also
want
to
make
sure
the
taxpayers
who
are
not
deserving
of
the
residential
exemption
are
not
receiving
it
and
we
are
able
to
use
that
the
January
first
date
is
the
date
that
the
income
tax
filing
residency
is
also
established
for
that.
That
is
a
great
audit
mechanism
for
us,
so
by
preserving
the
January
first
date
for
everyone
else,
but
using
the
July
first
date
for
the
new
homeowners.
It
was
a
neat
way
of
balancing
those
those
two
interests.
A
There's
you
just
touched
on
I
was
just
going
to
ask
about
how
that
how
it
would
dovetail
with
folks
file
on
their
taxes,
Upsy
April
fifteenth
the
deadline
to
be
able
to
claim
I
guess
any
of
the
residential
exemptions.
Does
that
throw
it
off
when
you
allowing
folks
the
opportunity
to
go
from
being
reversed
to
june
thirtieth,
you
sort
of
sit
with
your
tax
guy
and
then
you
so
usually,
let's,
let's
put
in
for
the
residential
exemption
united.
So
have
you
given
it
some
thought.
Yeah.
C
We
will
be
establishing
for
just
for
the
new
homeowners.
The
effective
date
will
be
July
first,
so
if
you
buy
it
on
April
15
on,
we
will
be
verifying
that
they
live
there
as
of
July
first.
So
if
you
bought
it-
and
it
takes
you
a
week
to
a
couple
of
months
to
do
some
renovations,
but
then
you
go
in
occupy
the
property.
You'll
get
the
exemption.
C
C
Smiling
yeah
I
mean
we
we
do
now
I
mean
you
know,
we've
you.
Your
heart
goes
out
to
somebody
who
buys
a
property
on
january
second
and
therefore
has
to
wait
the
whole
time.
This
will
certainly
cure
that
problem.
Unfortunately,
I
mean
there
will
be
people
who
buy
a
property
on
July
third,
who
will
not
benefit
from
the
residential
exemption
until
the
next
year.
But
but
at
that
point
you
know
every
tax
benefit
it,
whether
it
be
for
property
taxes
or
income
taxes.
C
They
all
have
effective
dates
and,
at
this
point,
I
think
we're
taking
it
all
the
way
to
when
the
fiscal
year
begin,
which
is
a
pretty
expensive
deadline.
So
there
was
always
going
to
be
somebody
who's
a
day
late,
but
I
think
we're
really
we're
taking
the
amount
of
time
to
the
extent
of
Newark
and
reasonably
cover
and.
C
A
A
I
just
want
to
make
you
aware
that
that
between
April
and
May
we're
going
to
put
together
the
CPC,
you
know
the
parameters
around
the
CPC
committee
and
the
moving
forward.
Euler
they'll
be
generated
from
cpk
funds
plus
the
match
and
then
moving
forward.
But
if
you
didn't
have
any
initial
thoughts
as
to
or
at
least
get
an
opportunity
to
look
at
the
ordinance,
we
just
want
to
make
sure
that
it
works
for
Boston.
C
That
councillor
me
I
certainly
have
been
working
with
my
colleagues
in
the
administration,
particularly
in
the
finance
cabinet,
on
the
the
implementation
of
the
the
CPA,
and
certainly
you
mean
there's
a
lot
of
work
involved.
Just
in
terms
of
you
know,
working
with
our
tax
software
and
what
not
to
get
get
all
those
necessary
calculations
done
and
we're
certainly
busy
working
on
that
now,
but
we'll
be
prepared
and
a
pita
to
do
whatever
we
can
to
help
you
out
with.
B
Just
a
few
again
thanks,
commissioner,
you
know
I
was
maybe
a
little
more
aggressive
and
my
first
draft
but
I
see
the
benefit
of
what
we're
doing
now.
You
know
not
allowing
for
new
homeowners
or
owner
occupants
in
general
to
wait
sometimes
almost
a
year
and
a
half
right
on
sometimes
two
years.
It's
sometimes
people
don't
even
realize
it.
So
you
know
one
of
the
questions
that
I
always
ask
is
you
know.
Is
this
going
to
require
more
staffing,
more
cost
to
the
department.
C
Counselor,
I
think
that
we
already
have
we've
done
a
lot
in
the
way
of
automating
the
process
in
when
we
send
out
the
exemption
applications.
We
have
a
workflow
software
that
it
all
goes
through,
so
we
feel
like
we're
already
processing,
on
average,
two
to
three
thousand
applications
a
year.
I
think
the
the
additional
workload
from
this
shouldn't
be
that
significant
in
the
fact
that
we
will
be
able
to
we,
we
send
out
applications
for
the
residential
exemption,
usually
in
august.
So
the
timing
of
this
is
we're
going
to
July.
D
C
So
the
Reader's
Digest
version
is
anytime
that
there's
a
sale
on
a
property
in
a
new
home
or
in
homeowner,
and
it's
and
it's
a
residential
property.
We
get
notification
from
through
the
registries
at
that
sales
taken
place,
so
all
of
those
new
owners
in
August
we
will
compile
all
those
and
we
will
send
out
application
to
all
those
new
own
home
owners
for
them
to
apply
for
the
residential
exemption.
C
So
in
that
application
they
have
to
provide
documentation
that
they
are
living
in,
the
property
is
their
principal
residence
and
once
they
send
that
back
to
us,
we
go
through
our
verification
process,
and
the
great
thing
is
that
if,
if
we
approve
it,
we're
able
to
apply
the
exemption
to
that
third
quarter
tax
bill,
so
that
avoids
them
having
to
pay
some
additional
taxes
and
then
get
a
refund
back
later
on.
We
get
a
lot
of
processing
done
before
the
third
quarter.
Bill
is
sent
out
to
write
on
they
get
the
benefit
of
it.
B
And,
conversely,
and
we
had
during
our
meetings,
we
had
several
discussions
about
investors
who
basically
inherit
the
residential
exemption
for
a
while
and
I
know
we're
still
going
to
work
on
trying
to
address
that
in
a
better
way.
But
you
know
give
us
your.
You
know
kind
of
the
procedures
you
go
through
to
address
that
issue.
So.
C
It's
really
the
same
process
it
set
sail.
So
when
that
sale
takes
place,
we
actually
remove
the
exemption
from
the
property
for
the
next
year
and
require
the
new
owner
to
reapply.
So
in
your
scenario,
if
it's
an
investor
of
the
property,
then
they
will
not
qualify
for
the
exemption
because
they
won't
be
able
to
demonstrate
that
they
occupy
the
property
as
their
principal
residence,
and
so
we
will
remove
the
exemption
and
the
subsequent
fiscal
year.
They
will
not
receive
it
right
in.
C
Because
that's
an
interesting
issue,
because
under
current
law,
if
we
find
there
after
the
exemptions
already
been
granted,
that
somebody
does
has
not
lived
in
the
property,
there's
no
ability
for
us
to
remove
the
exemption
under
current
law.
So
it's
part
of
the
mayor's
legislative
package.
We
have
filed
legislation
that
would
allow
us
you
remove
the
exemption
and
reapply
the
tax
in
case
of
a
fraudulent
fraudulent
application.
We
could
actually
go
back
up
to
six
years
and
you
are.
A
C
That
exemption
amounts
over
again.
It's
it's
important
that
this
exemption
has
a
purpose
to
reward
owner
occupants
and
home
ownership
in
the
city,
but
we
all
want
to
make
sure
that
it's
only
going
to
the
people
who
truly
deserve
it.
I
need
to
be
able
to
take
steps
to
ensure
that
in
cases
where
people
are
receiving
it
I
shouldn't
we
get.
We
get
the
money
back
right.
B
C
That's
an
excellent
point:
counselor
and
again,
one
of
the
I
think
the
benefits
of
our
working.
You
know
this
out
ahead
of
time.
Is
that
because
we've
established
the
July
first
date
and
include
these
folks
in
our
application
process
in
the
summer,
we
can
get
all
of
the
applications
process
before
the
third
quarter.
Bill
is
set.
The
tax
rate
is
set
with
those
exemptions
built
into
it.
So,
as
a
result,
there's
no
loss
of
revenue
to
the
city
for
from
the.
B
Break
it
just
final
statement
you
know,
would
love
to
continue
to
work
on
on
this
issue
may
be
providing
more
penalties
for
those
folks.
You
know
again
whether
what
it
takes
for
you
to
kind
of
go
back
six
years,
a
lot
of
staff
time.
Maybe
you
know
if
you
catch
someone,
and
you
know
you
have
that
evident,
evidentiary
documentation
that
says
they've
been
taking
this
illegal.
Maybe
we
should
just
have
a
fine
immediately
and
the
claw
back,
but
that's
something
we
can
talk
about
offline
and
once
again,
I
want
a
priest.
B
A
Bronze,
we
appreciate
you,
I'm
an
attention
to
this
matter
and
hopefully
we'll
get.
This
thing
turned
around:
get
a
committee
report
issued
and
get
this
before
the
council
of
the
next
next
normal
session,
so
appreciate
all
your
work
and
effort,
and
I
look
forward
to
working
with
you
throughout
the
budget
process
and
when
this
gets
implemented
after
it
gets
up
the
beacon
hill
and
and
they
recognize
the
wisdom
behind
it
to
hopefully
get
a
turnaround
focus
we
passed
again
so
Thank
You,
commissioner,
and
that
will
conclude
the
hearing
and
the
committee
and
govern
operations.