The Russell County Board of Supervisors hit a homerun for the elderly and disabled for the county. During the meeting they approved the real estate discounts for the citizens. They approved a $200 discount if they are eligible for the discount based on income. They approved moving the income limit to $40,000.00 dollars. That means to the citizens that if you are 65 years old or disabled you can apply for the discount if you yearly income is less than $40,000.00 and total assets of less than $100,000.00. This is a increase in the limit of almost $10,000.00.
The biggest thing that is a big aid to the citizens is they moved the application deadline from March 1st to November 1st. This means seniors and disabled have almost the entire year to apply for the discount. When the application deadline was March 1st and you forgot then you would get no help for the year. Bills do not go out until May so many people may forget or not know that they missed their chance to apply. While I could not be sure that this happened at the meeting because it was very hard to follow exactly what they had done on this issue, I contacted the Commissioner of the Revenue Office, and they verified that seniors could now apply for the discount all the way up to November 1st. This is a huge win for the citizens. If a senior forgets before the bills come out or a person becomes disabled during the year they have all way up to November 1st to apply for the Real Estate Elderly and Disabled discount on their tax bill.
I have included Washington County guidelines in the attached pdf below. Considering Russell County gives a flat $200 discount, maybe this turns out better than Washington Counties percentage basis. Russell County allows more acreage while Washington County only allows 1 acre.
All the supervisors need praise for these actions.
