Letters to the Editor

August 17, 2008

Delay reassessment to ensure fair treatment for seniors

I have read accounts in area newspapers of senior citizens expressing concern – and in some cases outright fear – about the impact of Luzerne County’s reassessment on their lives.

Protecting our senior citizens has to be “job one.” If a single senior citizen loses a home or has to choose between paying higher taxes and buying food or prescription drugs, we have utterly failed them.

What will that say about us as a people? Do we lack the sheer will and social conscience necessary to protect our seniors?

This reassessment must be delayed to ensure the following steps are put in place to protect our senior citizens:

1) No senior citizen should have to pay higher taxes – not a single dime – due to this reassessment. Higher tax rates should pass to whoever owns the property next, whether that is an heir or a third party.

2) Any senior citizen due a reduction on taxes should be issued a credit during the delay while the necessary protection for our seniors is being incorporated into the reassessment process.

I am challenging all of our political leaders to “step up to the plate” and do whatever they can to protect our seniors. Don’t let them down. No matter what office you hold or aspire to, speak up today on behalf of our seniors.

I have worked the polls during elections. I have seen firsthand that senior citizens do one thing more consistently than most other segments of our society: They vote.

Anyone who abandons our seniors, who fails to protect them during this reassessment process, does so at the peril of losing their jobs when those seniors see them up for re-election.

James M. O’Meara Sr. Wilkes-Barre

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