The City Council discusses increasing the property tax exemption available for qualified veterans in Chicopee during its June 17 meeting.
Photo credit: ChicopeeTV
CHICOPEE — The City Council approved adopting the provision to the HERO Act that will increase the property tax exemption available to qualified disabled veterans to as much as $2,000.
The HERO Act, which was adopted by the state legislature in August 2024, is a comprehensive and expansive legislative package dedicated to the welfare of veterans in Massachusetts.
Since its filing, additional provisions have been added by the Senate and House to create over 30 provisions, including spending, policy initiatives, tax credits and statute changes, organized into four categories.
Chicopee City Assesor Laura McCarthy was at the meeting to explain the provision. She explained that the city files an accounting of the exemption the assessors do for veterans, elderly and disabled at the end or April and needed to see what those numbers were in order give an estimate of the cost.
Right now, veterans receive exemptions depending on their disability, anywhere between $400 and $1,000 off their real estate tax bill.
McCarthy said “most” of the veterans are in the $400 range.
The adoption of this HERO Act section would double the real estate tax exemption range, so it would be $800, up to $2,000, that would be exempted from the property tax bill.
The same qualifications and proof of disability would remain, but the city would be fully responsible for the additional cost since this is a local option.
McCarthy calculated the costs from prior years, and said it would have cost the city $295,200 in fiscal year 2024 and $277,100 in FY25.
The cost that the city is bearing comes from the overlay account and McCarthy said every year when they do reconciliation in the fall for taxes and budgeting, $1 million is allocated to the overlay account.
McCarthy noted that the overlay account is used to cover these kinds of exemptions like real estate abatement costs, the senior work off program or veterans work off program.
“We certainly have the money to pay for this in the overlay account even with what we’re doing right now,” McCarthy stated.
Besides thanking the city assessors for their work with the adoption of this provision, Mayor John Vieau also wanted to thank state Sen. John Velis (D-Westfield) who was a veteran himself and introduced the bill.
Vieau said, “I also wanted to take a quick moment to give a plug out to our Senator John Velis who spearheaded this bill, which became a law and is really taking care of our disabled veteran community. I’m really excited to see we’re adopting it.”
The City Council unanimously adopted the law to increase the exemptions for real estate taxes for qualified disabled veterans.
The provision needed to be adopted before July 1 to be effective for the fall tax bills.
Ward 1 City Councilor Abigal Arriaga said, “I think this is a wonderful thing for our [veterans] here in Chicopee. We are very proud, and I think this is an amazing thing we should adopt.”
Ward 9 City Councilor Mary Beth Pniak-Costello agreed with Arriaga and stated, “This is a tremendous program. I want to thank the city assessors and the mayor. It’s a benefit for our veterans. This is one program that’s another good investment of our monies.”
