PEABODY — Mayor Ted Bettencourt spoke at the last Finance Committee meeting about a work-off program that would allow homeowners based on minimum wage to work off a portion of their tax bill.
“This is an opportunity for us, and you’ll recall we’ve done this in the past for our veterans to give them an opportunity to lower their tax bills by doing some city work,” Bettencourt said. “I wanted to look at, particularly, in light of the tax increase this year, to look at opportunities to do a work-off program for our senior citizens.”
He said the program has yet to be developed, but they are in the process of working on it. He mentioned that when it is ready, he will want to meet with the City Council.
“But this vote is required in order to do that and implement a program in the future, and I thought this was a great opportunity for us to work together … to allow our seniors to do some work-off program work, here at city hall potentially, or at the senior center, or some other locations,” he said.
Bettencourt said he has information from cities and towns that already have the program, and they are looking into what would work best for the City of Peabody.
“This vote would allow us to start working on that,” he said. “And again, that would be something I bring forward to the Council before anything is implemented. But I do think it is a great opportunity for us.”
Councilor-At-Large Jon Turco noted that “this is a great idea,” but asked, “What’s the accountability on it? What if … 500 residents come in and … did I miss that part? Did you address that?”
Bettencourt responded that other cities and towns currently put a limit on it. “Potentially $1,000 reduction in their taxes or something like that. There is criteria that would have to be met in order to perform these types of services to work off some of their tax bill. … It’s going to depend on how we eventually want as a community (to) structure it,” he said.
Councilor-At-Large Thomas Rossignoll asked who would be overseeing the program, to which Bettencourt responded that it would primarily be a combination of the Finance Department and the Mayor’s Office.
Councilor Craig Melton agreed it seemed to be a great idea, but had one recommendation.
“My only recommendation would be: If we move forward with it, we try to do a good job right out of the gate with tracking data, because I think perhaps next time this year we could look at it and actually see cost savings for the city,” he said.
In the end, it was a unanimous yes to adopt Mass General Law Chapter 59 Section 5K, which allows a city to establish a work-off program for seniors over the age of 60.