The Legislature did not get the memo on affordability. I get they have $300 million less in their budget now, thanks to Trump’s Big Beautiful Bill, but do they have to replenish the loss by taking it from seniors with little, if anything, to spare?
Sen. Dan McCay’s SB78 eliminates the Circuit Breaker program providing a tax break to older homeowners of limited means. I am one such. Caregiving for aging, ailing parents vastly reduced my ability to earn and save and at the same time I live in a neighborhood targeted by real estate predators who buy up houses to cram them full of student renters, driving up home prices and thus property taxes for resident owners.
Circuit Breaker has proved a lifeline for me. Without it, nearly 15% of my annual income goes to pay my property tax. With it, I was able to take a vacation in 2025, the first time in several years.
McCay argues the tax reduction for seniors is “the only welfare program where someone … receives a subsidy paid for by others.” Excuse me?
May I point out that those without children in school are subsidizing education? And while the weighted pupil unit for public schools in this state for 2024-25 was $4,443, the money doled out by the Legislature as vouchers in their snappy “Utah Fits All” program, aimed at covering private schools and homeschooling, is up to $8,000.
I am all for funding education — public, not private — but who’s subsidizing whom here?
Poor seniors are expected to subsidize vouchers for people buying ski passes, but when they need a little help in turn, forget it? McCay seems to believe I belong to that Dickensian category, “the undeserving poor”!
McCay would replace the tax reduction with a 50% deferral of payment till the home is sold. Deferral is not tax relief. Does it not occur to him that when a senior sells her home, it is probably to go into a care facility, and she will need every penny to cover those exorbitantly high costs?
SB78 passed out of the Senate Revenue and Taxation Committee on Jan. 28. If Republicans are true to form, they will ignore the 42% increase in senior homelessness in 2025 and pass this bill — just as they did last year.
In 2025, Gov. Cox was decent enough to veto it. Do we have to count on him doing so again?
Michele Margetts, Salt Lake City
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