TO: Ron Long, Assembly President
Members, Kenai Peninsula Borough Assembly
FROM: Deb Germano, Assembly Member
DATE: May 4, 2006
SUBJECT: Ordinance 2006-26, requiring that late-filed exemption applications for senior citizen and disabled veteran exemptions be filed no later than February 15 of the year for which the exemption is sought unless unable to comply with that requirement
The borough incurs costs processing late-filed applications for all property tax exemptions. The assembly recently enacted Ordinance 2006-15, which amended the code to require that property tax exemptions which may be approved by the mayor must be submitted no later than February 15 of the tax year for which the exemption is sought. To be consistent, it makes sense to have the same deadline apply to the senior citizen and disabled veteran applications which must be approved by the assembly. The purpose of this ordinance is to limit late-filed applications to those who truly were unable to file the application within one month of the deadline of January 15. This is because processing these late-filed applications consumes a significant amount of staff time as well as assembly time for each such late-filed application. It should also be noted that once the exemption is granted, the senior citizen and disabled veteran need not continue to apply for the exemption unless their circumstances change as set out in the code. Thank you for your consideration of this ordinance.