FYI ... Letter to edit: Property taxes hurting seniors - REporter-Herald
Thomas Clayton
Property taxes hurting senior citizens in Larimer County
We need action on the out of control property tax situation that is forcing seniors out of their homes. This is countywide and I will give you my wife and my personal example. We are disabled in our 70s. I am a retired veteran, my wife is blind and has had many seeing eye dogs, many of you know her about town.
We recently had a fire that burned us out of our house in August, still not back in. It’s bad enough having a fire, but then the county re-victimized us by raising our property tax from about $800 last year to $1,400 this year. We protested and were denied saying the increase was justified. This artificial evaluation raised our taxes by almost 60%. Does that sound right to you folks? This even includes the senior homestead exemption, which is meaningless due to another artificial cap.
We can barely absorb this, but we know others in our situation that can’t. Isn’t it time we look at the current politicians that allowed this? Maybe we need someone who cares about people instead of development that has never paid for itself. Time to stop victimizing the most vulnerable of our population. Time to remind those elected who they work for. This is a travesty that seems to stack against elderly disabled who have been in their homes 20 plus years. Enough is enough. Press current candidates what they are going to do to address this. I for one am going to out of survival mode.
Harold Mansfield, Loveland
 | Tom Clayton Communication and Media Specialist, Public Affairs |
| Commissioners' Office 200 W Oak St, Fort Collins, 80522 | 2nd Floor W: (970) 498-7005 tcla...@larimer.org | www.larimer.org |