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2 <br /> <br /> Mr. Lynch said that Alexandra uses their program to provide tax relief which is <br />why they set their house value higher. He said if we get legislative authority to have a <br />differential tax rate we may want to sunset this program. <br /> <br /> Mr. O’Connell said the program could be subject to an annual appropriation of <br />funds. <br /> <br /> Ms. Kelley said the charter gives the authority to enact a separate tax deferral <br />program. <br /> <br /> Dr. Brown asked if more people apply than anticipated could another choice be to <br />make the amount based on the number of people that apply, and staff said yes. Dr. <br />Brown said that could be decided later after we see how many people have applied. <br /> <br /> Council tentatively agreed to set a property value limit of $238,200 and to limit it <br />to owner occupied homes. <br /> <br /> Mr. Caravati asked if qualifying homes could have accessory apartments, and Mr. <br />Richards said they would be allowed but rent from them would be counted as income. <br /> <br /> Mr. Caravati said he thinks the income level should be lower than $50,000 so we <br />could spend more money on lower income families. He said he would like to see the <br />program start off on a sliding scale <br /> <br /> Mr. Richards said he would like to keep the program simple for the first year. <br /> <br /> Mr. Lynch said he would advocate not looking at this program as a long term <br />solution. He said in the long term he would like to reduce taxes on residential <br />homeowners. <br /> <br /> Mr. O’Connell said it could be promoted as a one year grant. <br /> <br /> Mr. Caravati said the need at an income level of $35,000 will be there for a long <br />time. He said he sees this as a permanent commitment. <br /> <br /> Dr. Brown said he would hope that the State would allow us to differentiate <br />property, but he would not count on it. Dr. Brown said he would like to see if there is a <br />straightforward and easy way for tiering above and below income levels of above/below <br />$40,000. <br /> <br /> There was a consensus to tentative set the income limit at $50,000 with an interest <br />in finding out if the program could be tiered. <br /> <br /> Mr. Richards said it can be tiered, but we cannot estimate the number who will <br />qualify at the income levels. <br /> <br /> Mr. Lynch said the income level could be set at $40,000 and leave the grant <br />amount at $250. <br /> <br /> Mr. Caravati said he would prefer tiering with an upper income level of $50,000. <br /> <br /> Mr. Richards said if we use the income level of $50,000 this year, we could <br />grandfather those at $50,000 if the upper limit is reduced in future years. <br /> <br /> Dr. Brown said he would support keeping it simple and advertising the program <br />as providing a grant of approximately $250. <br /> <br /> Mr. Lynch said he would rather say that a grant of $250 will be provided even <br />though there would be a slight risk in doing that as he thinks it would be harder to explain <br />otherwise. <br /> <br /> <br />