ORDER-2017-32 : Acceptance of MGL, Chapter 60, Section 3F, as amended by Chapter 141 of the Acts of 2016 (Sec. 12) To Place On The Property Tax Bills Or Motor Vehicle Excise Tax Bills a check off for taxpayers to donate to a veterans assistance fund, to assist veterans and their dependents in need.

Transcript (~4 min @ 31:38)

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▶ 31:36 John N. Tramontozzi: On the motion, all in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Seeing none, this order will get recommended to the full board at the next meeting.

▶ 31:47 John N. Tramontozzi: Excuse me, there is one more order on the agenda this evening. It's order number 2017-32, acceptance of Massachusetts General Laws Chapter 60, Section Section 3F, as amended by Chapter 141 of the Acts of 2016, Section 12, to place on the property tax bills or motor vehicle excise tax bills a check off for taxpayers to donate to a veteran's assistance fund to assist veterans and their dependents in need. This order was also sponsored by Vice Chairman Francis Wright, and I'll give you your first opportunity to say anything on it.

▶ 32:25 Francis X. Wright Jr.: you mr. chairman just I think this is pretty much a no-brainer it gives us the ability if we accept this statute to allow for a checkoff box a line on which

▶ 32:43 Francis X. Wright Jr.: individuals may donate a pledge an amount of money which shall increase the amount that's due obviously when they pay their either property tax or excise tax and the city shall establish a fund for the municipal veterans called municipal Veterans Assistance Fund and it shall be under the supervision of the local veterans agent so I think we do a lot in this city for our veterans we have a lot of opportunities to assist them as it is but I think that if we can And if we do this, this gives people who may not be able to attend an event or buy a ticket to whatever that they still have an opportunity to donate their small or large amounts to assist veterans. And I guess my personal preference would be to see it on excise tax bills because we all get those at our homes whereas many mortgage mortgages now require people's tax bills to be paid as part of the mortgage and they might not otherwise be writing a check to pay the property tax but that obviously will be up to the

▶ 34:00 Peter D. Mortimer: city should we accept this second the motion to recommend for passage so we

▶ 34:07 John N. Tramontozzi: have a motion to recommend by alderman right and seconded by alderman Mortimer

▶ 34:14 Michael P. Zwirko: um is any further discussion alderman circle yeah thank you mr chairman i just had a few questions and hopefully uh alderman wright could answer them and you started to at the very end um i noticed that it says or and i'm wondering can we change it so that it's and or is this something that we we have to employ just because it's the letter of the law that was passed in municipal modernization act and then an addendum to that would be can we add um uh the option uh for water bill as well i'm just trying to think of a way to increase the net that this would go out to folks and i didn't know if these are the only options available to us under the law alderman wright

▶ 34:49 Francis X. Wright Jr.: through you mr chairman um it's my opinion that these are the only options available to us it does say or does not say and does not give us an opportunity to to use the water bill as a means to collect any donations so i think we're we have to if we accept the statute the city will have to make a decision whether to seek the donations by way of the property tax or

▶ 35:14 John N. Tramontozzi: the excise tax okay thank you there is one other option that is a mail with such bill a separate form so you can have it on the actual excise tax bill the real estate property tax bill are a separate sheet that goes with the mailing of those two it's my it makes sense to put it either on the excise

▶ 35:29 Francis X. Wright Jr.: well on yeah but it goes with one or the other or the other yeah it can be as a a separate sheet for the purposes of collecting and i would agree with you but does that help

▶ 35:40 John N. Tramontozzi: that answer yeah i appreciate it thank you very good any further discussion seeing none uh we have a motion to recommend and it's been seconded all in favor all right any opposed