Tax Credit
$1,150 property-tax credit eyed for Glocester homeowners
Households with income below $23,000 could qualify for extra help, and the biggest add-on would go to owners 80 and older.
Glocester could expand its local property-tax relief for older residents and permanently disabled homeowners. The proposal also adds an income-based credit for lower-income households and lets the town council set the benefit by ordinance.
- Glocester could let its town council grant a bigger property-tax credit.
- The base credit would start at $1,150 and rise with annual tax increases.
- Households under $23,000 in income could qualify for extra relief.
- The largest add-on credit would go to homeowners 80 and older.
- The benefit would apply only to owner-occupied property in town.
In Glocester, Rhode Island, older homeowners and some permanently disabled residents could see a bigger break on their property tax bill. The proposal would let the town council authorize the credit by ordinance for owner-occupied homes in town, with a base benefit of $1,150 that would rise each year along with any annual tax increase.
The relief is aimed at homeowners over 65 and at owners under 65 who are permanently disabled, a design that keeps the focus on people who are most likely to feel a property-tax hike in their monthly budget.
A credit that grows with need
The bill also opens the door to extra relief for households with combined adjusted gross taxable income at or below $23,000. That income cap would be indexed each year to the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers, or CPI-U, so the cutoff would not stay frozen while prices move around it.
For eligible homeowners, the add-on credit would be tiered by age. Owners ages 65 through 79 could get up to $1,500 more, while owners 80 and older could get up to $4,500. The structure gives the oldest homeowners the largest local break.
How the break would work at home
The credit would apply only to real property in Glocester that is both owned and occupied by the homeowner. It would be prorated among co-owners, including co-tenants, joint tenants and tenants by the entirety, so one household would not collect multiple versions of the same exemption.
It would also sit on top of any other exemptions already available, making it an added layer of tax relief rather than a replacement for existing breaks. For homeowners trying to stay in place on fixed income, that difference can matter as much as the size of the credit itself.