Minutes 05-03-2022 Business Meeting

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34 Commissioner Hamilton asked why the number of people applying was so low. She said without that understanding, it is hard for her to know what changes need to be made. She asked if it was because eligible people didn't know, or because tax bills were lower than expected once changes were made to the way revaluation was done. She said this is a pilot with ARPA funds, and any further will come out of county funds. Nancy Freeman, Tax Administrator, said she spoke with the Tax Administrator in Mecklenburg County and he said that it took them about three years to get a good number of applicants. She said that the Durham County response was lower this year, their first, than they anticipated. She said it is a matter of getting the word out to the community. Corey Root said they developed what they thought was a robust communication plan beginning in October. She said they heard feedback that people were eligible but just didn't hear about the program. She said they are trying to adjust for the future. Commissioner Hamilton asked if there is an estimate of how many people would be eligible. Chair Price said eligibility would be determined by the criteria. Commissioner Hamilton asked for a sense of how many folks are eligible, so they can determine how much progress they are making in getting applications. Nancy Freeman said the only indicator for her office would be the number of people who qualify for the Homestead Exemption Program, which has different standards than the Longtime Homeowner Assistance Program. She said 25 out of 91 Longtime Homeowner Assistance applicants were already in the Homestead Exemption Program. Commissioner Bedford asked about family trust properties. She asked why should an applicant need to be the trustee. Nancy Freeman said the situation they had was a family trust with two daughters who were trustees. She said one of the daughters was living in the home. She said that this program is for homeowners that live in the home for ten years, and a trust is not a person. She said their legal counsel recommended that if the family member was the trustee, then they should be eligible for the program. Commissioner Bedford said as a CPA she does a lot of estate work. She said her concern is that it takes money to have an attorney set up a trust. She said she could see this being abused by wealthy people when there are family members who could pay the taxes. She said she is ok waiting to see how the program goes. Commissioner Fowler clarified that the way the program was set up in the previous year is that the county paid the difference between 2020 2022 Orange County portion of the taxes. She said that for those that applied, they weren't huge amounts. She said it would differ if your house was worth a lot more. She said the new option is to change this to a program to support those who are making less than 80% of AMI. She asked if they send this information out in all tax bills, do the numbers reflect sending it out to everyone. Nancy Freeman said they won't know how many people will apply. She said she estimated a 50% increase. She said she looked at different choices just to get an idea of how much they could be looking at for 2022. She said they could have twice as many applicants, and it could be much more than 50%. Commissioner Fowler clarified that they do not know the percent of property owners or the number of property owners that fall under 80% of the AMI. Nancy Freeman said her office has no way to know that. Commissioner Fowler asked for clarification on the phrase "Create standard award amount with cap $830, but no more than bill amount." She asked if they meant the just the county portion or the total. Nancy Freeman said it was up to the full amount of the bill. She said the Board could choose to do it just for the county portion.