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Please review the below minutes and the attached proposed forms and send or stop by and give Angela your input. Updated minutes will be sent out as appropriate. Thanks.
Draft Minutes of the Senior Tax Advisory Meeting
January 27, 2009
Heald Conference Room, Carlisle Town Hall
Attendees:
Nadine Bishop, Chair and resident
Melissa Stamp, Assessor’s Office
Larry Barton, Treasurer and resident
Kathy Mull, COA Director
Ann Wright, Resident
Angela Smith, COA Outreach and resident
- Nadine Bishop brought the meeting to order at approximately 10:40 a.m.
- A proposal was made and accepted to accept the minutes of the December 4 meeting of the Sr. Tax Advisory
- Temporary financial need and concerns that were raised while processing the current applications were discussed.
- A motion was made and accepted that for this current heating season, the criteria to handle a fuel assistance request will remain the same:
- The person must meet the Financial Criteria that has been established. Income is based on Gross Annual income, currently set at a maximum of 80% of State Median Income (matches the limit on Salvation Army grants)
- They must be a Carlisle resident
- Temporary financial need will be determined by the recipient and they will need to check this on the form and sign the application which indicates that they are verifying that the given information is true
- Funds available for each family will be set at $300 per heating season
- All payments are made directly to the heating fuel company
- Applicants should apply for resources from this fund only after having already applying to Community Team Works, and/or Salvation Army, and/or the Friends of the Council on Aging, if they are eligible.
- Assets are not considered
- If an applicant meets the income, are a resident and signed the form as being in temporary financial need, then Angela, Kathy, or Melissa can process their application for fuel assistance by submitting a bill head made out to the Fuel Company and noting that it is to be paid with funds from the Caroline E. Hill Fund
- Applications will be considered from November 1 to April 30 or until there are no funds available.
- It should be noted that 8 applications were processed so far. Each for $300.
- It is hoped that there will be funds available for this fuel assistance program next year.
- Assuming that the program will be in place next year, a motion was made and accepted for next year’s heating season to change how temporary financial need is handled. It is hoped that this will ensure that the program is available to as many needy families as possible. Therefore, we will only process outstanding bills for fuel or when a delivery of fuel is only made when funds are available. Temporary financial need next year will be determined by:
- Resident must either be unable to get fuel delivered without making a payment for the fuel
- Resident has an outstanding fuel bill which they feel they need help paying
- Payments will only be made directly to the fuel company and only be for the amount of the bill up to a maximum of $300. Residents can request to have more than one outstanding fuel bill (or portion of bill) paid so long as the combined payment does not exceed $300 per heating season.
- Although it was discussed previously, it should be noted that Larry Barton indicated that since this is a town administered fund, whoever processes an application does not need to keep any of the income justification documents, but should note the documents that were used to acquire the income information.
- Angela agreed to make a draft of an edited criteria document (amounts will need to be adjusted once we know what the fuel assistance criteria that is set next year for the State and Salvation Army. See attached documents.
- Since not everyone can open attachments, the wording on the application has been edited as follows:
- The amount to be paid to the utility is not more than $300.00 per heating season. Payments will not be made for more than an outstanding heating fuel bill or a maximum of $300 towards a fuel delivery when payments must be made at the time of or in advance of delivery
- Also attached is the proposed criteria for next year. For those who cannot open documents here is the proposed wording.
Criteria for Receiving Assistance:
- Must be Carlisle Resident
- Must be temporarily in financial difficulties either with the need for funds to have heating fuel delivered or an outstanding fuel balance that cannot be paid without assistance
Meets the above income criteria
- Nadine Bishop called the meeting to order at approximately 12:15 p.m.
- NOTE: There is one item that Angela remembered after the meeting that should be discussed and that is how to handle income for someone who is self-employed. For CTI, they determine which expenses are included, and CTI will determine the “income” and if the applicant does not fit within their criteria then the applicant can apply for the Salvation Army if appropriate. For self-employed people they use the previous year Federal Tax Return until January 31 (so for 2009, they would use the 2007 tax return until Jan 31, 2009), and then they use the return for 2008. We have only had one person who has been self-employed apply to date and Angela was able to use the gross income from their 2007 tax return. Angela will check with CTI and try to come up with a proposal for future applicants.
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