Mayor Looks to Increase Residential Tax Exemption

At last week's Board of Aldermen meeting, Mayor Joe Curtatone, submitted in a home rule petition to increase the residential tax exemption from 30% to 35%-making it the largest in the State. The City continues to explore increasing exemptions for seniors, veterans, widows and those with disabilities that are already double the state limits.

In a press release sent today, Mayor Joe Curtatone is quoted, “Today’s Somerville renters are tomorrow’s two-bedroom condo owners and two-family home owners, who will settle in the community and raise a family here. Neighborhoods should have a variety of housing types for a variety of people, and we need to strike the right balance between supporting homeowners and renters,” said Mayor Curtatone. “Increasing the exemption to 35 percent instead of 40 percent means that we can still provide relief to the middle class and retirees, while mitigating the burden Somerville renters could face in the form of higher rents due to the building owner seeing a larger tax increase.”

The Home Rule Petition submitted on Thursday March 13th will have to be approved at the State level and would effect 58% of the homes in the City. The request by the Mayor was referred to the Committee on Finance who are scheduled to meet on March 24th at 6:00 PM.