Good evening.

Gonna call to order the finance committee meeting of September 10th, 2026.

Present this evening, our committee members, Daigle, Gamash, Manning Martin, and Councilor Vazignal, would you sit in for Councilor Turko, please?

Yes.

Thank you.

We have several items on our agenda this evening.

The first we're going to start with is the Senior Citizen Property Tax Work Off Abatement Program, which I'll turn over to the mayor.

Great.

Thank you.

Good evening, Madam Chair.

Good evening, counselors.

Hope everybody's doing well.

Appreciate the opportunity to uh be with you today and talk a little bit about the senior citizen tax work-off abatement program.

Uh I know you've had this uh for some time, and certainly uh willing and able and happy to answer any questions.

We do have our city solicitor Don Kahn here.

We have our uh city finance director Mike Jingris here, and uh so they can certainly assist me with any questions.

I can give a brief overview and uh then turn it back over to you, Madam Chair.

Um this has been asked of me uh over a number of years about potential opportunities for seniors to do some tax work off of their of their real estate taxes, and um a number of cities have uh programs like this.

We've looked at Salem, Beverly, and Middleton in particular to see what type of programs worked uh for them and kind of constructed our own uh type of program that we would offer here in the city of Peabody.

Uh, there's this number of set criteria.

I've presented you with uh program overview, eligibility requirements and financial qualifications, frequently asked questions information, uh, which is I think going to be very helpful, job descriptions for some of the work that I anticipate will come from this, and then also the program application.

Um learning from some of the other communities that have had this in in effect for a few years.

Uh this is a living document that's constantly being refined, constantly being adjusted.

Uh so I anticipate that that will happen pretty regularly as we move along, find out what doesn't work, what will work, and uh so I anticipate that there'll be a number of times during the course of this program that we look at options and changes and and and um look at ways to make the program work better for everybody.

Uh but certainly there's no um denying that costs uh for our seniors have increased from food to gas uh to just everyday life, uh, and certainly real estate taxes and some fees have gone up.

So this was an opportunity really to accomplish two goals.

One was to try to provide some relief for our seniors, uh, but also to uh be able to allow seniors to get more involved in city government.

Uh I have had over the years, and I'm sure many of you have had that as well, where people have asked about maybe volunteering or helping out in some way.

We never really had a uh way to do that, and we didn't have a mechanism for that, and this would this program would allow that.

Uh as is listed here pretty frequently the qualifications would be people that are 65 and older, uh, people that are um residents of Peabody homeowners that are uh up to date with their taxes.

Uh there's some other qualifications uh that would have to be met.

Uh but that we think this is an opportunity to allow certain number of people that are interested uh to pursue some sort of abatement.

I anticipate that the majority of those that do enter into this program would be um at the council on aging.

Carolyn Wynne has been a heavy part of this work in the preparation for this.

Um Morgan Yo at the library director.

Uh we are looking for some drivers for our veterans.

Um we had a number, and that's number's been dwindled down, so we need some assistance with drivers for our veterans.

So I anticipate some work there.

As of now, I don't anticipate schools, police department, or fire department.

Uh looking at other communities, that's not really offered, potentially could be in the future, but uh I don't think we would go down that road initially.

Uh we put a cap on it of 75 people, and that number can be fluid a little bit to see how it goes.

Um from the other communities I've learned that there's a great deal of initial interest, and then it kind of fades off, but that there are a number of people that move forward with this type of program.

Uh we're looking at a max of a hundred hours per year that a resident could work off, and it would be fifteen dollars an hour, so potentially a fifteen hundred dollar work off.

Um last June the council supported the request to adopt Mass General Laws Chapter 59, Section 5K, which allowed for seniors over 65 and 5N, which is for veterans.

So we have that in place now.

Uh it's taken a little bit of time to kind of put this together.

We have had a number of meetings.

Uh, there were a lot of moving parts to this, but we think that this program, the way we have it structured now, will work, and again, probably likely adjusted here or there as we move forward.

Um I've have had a number of calls since we talked about this last year.

I know a number of seniors are interested and want to move forward with it.

So I presented a timeline uh to kind of uh make this work uh where applications would be received over the next couple of months uh into December, and then the program itself would start in February of 27, and then we'd work from there.

So uh wanted to present that to you, certainly open up any questions.

Again, we have Cis City Solicitor Don Conn and our finance director, Mike Jingers to answer any questions as well.

So I'll turn it back over to you, Madam Chair, and happy to answer any questions.

Thank you, Mayor.

Councilor Gamash.

Uh thank you, Madam President.

A question to his honor of the mayor.

Um I reviewed the uh the job placement for tax credit position and the second bullet.

It says first-time applicants will have the priority consideration each year.