OCR Text |
Show tic Welfare Chairman Tells Why h Ls Did lot Oet Tax Abatements urPHS , in inquiries from sev-5 sev-5 Sflne county residents; an uCf?he question.. .-Why 've denied our widow's : at :'et bv the Duchesne 't a nnard of Commission- Bvear'" the following , ,2 was mailed to those 'sher 'commission of Utah. P at -iie letter for inforrnat-r- in 5 . clarification regarding nday 'f.tment of taxes to wi- iKe Duchesne Coun- hsitf?er have notified 5 tax abatements would ?er- .l owed any person re-hi re-hi ;be mblic welfare, the fol- formation should clar-llers clar-llers ;J? nuestion for you. if11' Duchesne County Com-1 lca' 1 ers took their action on l"'e s ld that the tax is al- f llowed in the budget by m 4 Sent of Public Wel- that if the abatement liwed there would be a of $10.00 from the amouht of public assistance received re-ceived each year by the widow. The county commissioners of any county are entirely within their rights in refusing to abate taxes to widows, with certain exceptions. The Constitution of the State of Utah reads that: "The taxes of the indigent poor may be remitted or abated at such times and in such manner as may be provided by law." The law provides that the county coun-ty board of equalization . . may remit or abate the taxes of any indigent person to an amount not exceeding $10 for the current year. This applies to any widow who is indigent, or to any other individual who may be indigent, but there is no authority to grant abatements to widows simply sim-ply because they are widows. In other words, there is no such thing as "widow's abatement." The county board of equalization equaliza-tion is not compelled to make this abatement. They are merely mere-ly authorized to do so if they see fit. Relative to the allowance by the Department of Public Welfare Wel-fare for taxes, the actual amount of the yearly taxes is divided by 12 and that amount is allowed in the budget of the recipient for each month's check. In the event that the needs budget of the recipient runs over the legal limit set up by the Legislature before the tax allowance is given, giv-en, naturally the recipient gets no benefit. However, in most cases the needs budget does not reach the legal maximum and the tax allowance is of benefit to the recipient." |