{"id":113875,"date":"2022-09-29T19:12:26","date_gmt":"2022-09-29T23:12:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/?p=113875"},"modified":"2022-09-29T19:12:26","modified_gmt":"2022-09-29T23:12:26","slug":"boscolas-proposal-extends-property-tax-rent-rebate-program-to-more-seniors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/?p=113875","title":{"rendered":"Boscola\u2019s Proposal Extends Property Tax & Rent Rebate Program to More Seniors"},"content":{"rendered":"

Harrisburg, PA \u2013 September 27, 2022<\/strong>\u2013 Senator Lisa M. Boscola (D-Northampton) announced today that she will be introducing legislation designed to extend the popular Property Tax & Rent Rebate (PTRR) Program, administered by the Pennsylvania Department of Revenue, to include more Pennsylvanians over the age of 65.<\/p>\n

The proposed legislation will increase income eligibility, raising the limits for the first time in nearly fifteen years. Under Boscola\u2019s proposal, homeowners eligible to apply will now be able to receive a rebate check towards their property taxes if they make upwards of $50,000. Current law excludes homeowners if their income was over $35,000. Additionally, Sen. Boscola\u2019s bill will increase income limits for renters, from $15,000 to $30,000.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese income limits haven\u2019t been increased since 2008\u201d Boscola said. \u201cI have homeowners who rely on this rebate check to stay in their homes, amid rising property taxes\u2026this is owed to them, and I will fight to get this done\u201d.<\/p>\n

Senator Boscola\u2019s bill will also aim to exclude an applicant\u2019s Social Security cost-of-living-adjustments (COLA) from the definition of income. Often a COLA increase can push an applicant\u2019s income level over the eligibility limit, sometimes by just a few dollars.<\/p>\n

\u201cCOLA increases are important. Our seniors receiving Social Security deserve a raise, but it shouldn\u2019t come back to bite them when applying for the PTRR program\u201d Senator Boscola said.<\/p>\n

The 2022 COLA for Social Security was set at 5.9%. Meanwhile, projections suggest the next COLA could be between 8% and 10% for beneficiaries.<\/p>\n

In 2022, nearly 260,000 Pennsylvanians were awarded rebate checks through the PTRR program. Boscola supported an additional one-time bonus this year for recipients, in Act 54, which authorized an infusion of $140 million in federal American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds towards extra rebate checks for Pennsylvania seniors.<\/p>\n

If enacted, Senator Boscola\u2019s bill would take effect for the 2023 PTRR program. However, applicants can still apply for this year\u2019s program, until December 31, 2022, by visiting mypath.pa.gov to file their rebate application online, or by calling Senator Lisa Boscola\u2019s office at 610-868-8667.\u00a0 Along with meeting income requirements, eligible applicants must certify that they are 65 years old or older, a widow or widower age 50-64, or permanently disabled age 18-64.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Information provided to TVL by:
\nKurt J. Derr
\nOffice of Senator Lisa Boscola
\nOne East Broad Street, Suite 120
\nBethlehem, PA 18018<\/p>\n

\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Harrisburg, PA \u2013 September 27, 2022\u2013 Senator Lisa M. Boscola (D-Northampton) announced today that she will be introducing legislation designed to extend the popular Property Tax & Rent Rebate (PTRR) … Continue reading Boscola\u2019s Proposal Extends Property Tax & Rent Rebate Program to More Seniors<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":112559,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[69,482],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-113875","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-in-the-valley","category-press-release-2"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/Lisa-Boscola.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113875"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=113875"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113875\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/112559"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=113875"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=113875"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=113875"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}