Lawmakers Hear Pleas to Fix, Expand Property‑Tax Exemption for 100% Disabled Veterans and Gold Star Spouses

Representative Jamie Foster, House cochair of the Veterans and Military Affairs Committee, opened a Feb. 13 hearing focused in part on Senate Bill 1276, which would amend last year’s property‑tax exemption for permanently and totally disabled veterans.

Surviving spouses and Gold Star family members described real financial hardship and paperwork barriers that left them out of last year’s enactment. "I was not eligible because my husband died prior to the bill of 10/01/2024," said Mary Liggins, a surviving spouse from Trumbull, who asked lawmakers to amend the bill so the effective date does not exclude people whose veterans died weeks or months earlier.

Rachel Clark, a Gold Star spouse who said her husband Master Sergeant Michael Clark died on July 20, 2022, urged the committee to extend the exemption to surviving spouses, calling the change "a small but significant step" toward helping families facing mortgage and living‑cost pressures.

Municipal officials and the Connecticut Council of Small Towns warned the committee the statute as enacted last year applied more broadly than the sponsors intended, producing larger revenue impacts than estimated. Betsy Guerra of COST said the fiscal note’s early $4.9 million estimate has since been revised upward by some municipalities and cautioned that unreimbursed exemptions could force deep local cuts. "We hope at a minimum the bill will delay implementation of the exemption until the exemption can be appropriately narrowed," Guerra said.

Lawmakers and witnesses converged on two recurring points: the legislature’s intent was to limit the exemption to veterans with a 100% permanent and total VA rating and their surviving spouses, and drafting/implementation issues produced unanticipated eligibility questions (examples included properties held in trusts or deeded in a spouse’s name). Several speakers urged a clear statutory fix and recommended options such as (a) an explicit 100% permanent and total threshold, (b) look‑back or retroactive amendments for spouses, and (c) income, acreage or home‑value caps to limit municipal exposure.

Representative Jamie Foster and others said the committee is working to reconcile the competing priorities: correcting the law to match sponsor intent, protecting towns from sudden revenue losses, and honoring veterans and Gold Star families. The committee also heard multiple personal accounts from veterans who said they applied for the benefit and were denied under local interpretations of the new statute; several asked for clearer guidance to property tax assessors.

What happens next: Committee members said they plan to draft revisions to clarify eligibility (including addressing properties held in trusts or deeds in a spouse’s name) and to explore legislative or budgetary remedies to reduce municipal budget shocks. The hearing produced no votes; work on the bill will continue in committee and in follow‑up stakeholder discussions.