Holbrook Veterans’ Property Tax Exemptions (Clauses 22 to 22F)

The Town of Holbrook grants the veterans’ exemptions of G.L. c. 59, s. 5, clauses 22 to 22F, through its board of assessors. The statute sets them as dollars off the tax bill, $400 under clause 22, $750, $1,250 and $1,500 under 22A to 22C and $1,000 under 22E, and exempts the whole domicile under 22D and 22F; a town can add to them only by accepting a local option, clause 22I, clause 22J or section 5C½. Every figure on this entry carries its source and the day it was read. The Board of Assessors’ page names Tina Schaar, Amelia Helfer and Daniel Lee the members, with Patrick Harring the Principal Assessor, Pamela Holt the Deputy Assessor and Raquel Echeverria the Administrative Assistant, at Town Hall, 50 North Franklin Street; the Assessors department page names Robert Alford II the Principal Assessor at 781-767-4315, so ask the office which it keeps current. The department administers "personal exemptions for qualifying taxpayers", and the assessors’ Veterans Exemptions page posts the town’s "EXEMPTIONS ADOPTED BY THE TOWN OF HOLBROOK FOR FISCAL YEAR 2027" sheet, a scanned two-pager read by OCR: $513.50 under each clause 22 subcategory - a 10 per cent disabled veteran, a Spanish War veteran, a Purple Heart recipient, a surviving spouse and a Gold Star parent - $962.81 under 22A for the loss of a foot, hand or eye or the Medal of Honor, $1,604.69 under 22B, $1,925.63 under 22C for specially adapted housing, $1,283.75 under 22D and the same under 22E for a 100 per cent disability, a total exemption for a paraplegic, $500 under 37A and a 41A deferral at a $55,000 gross-receipts cap. Each veterans’ amount is its statute raised by the fiscal 2027 adjustment of 2.7 per cent and increased a quarter - the statutes’ $400, $750, $1,250, $1,500 and $1,000 times 1.027 times 1.25 - what clause 22J at 25 per cent produces with a fiscal-2027 first application. The sheet is titled the town’s own record of its adoptions, as Southbridge’s brochure and Seekonk’s guide are of theirs, though it names no vote; the entry carries the town’s amounts as published and asks the assessors to confirm the option behind them. The sheet’s qualifications ask a veteran to have lived in Massachusetts at least six months before entering service and for five consecutive years immediately before filing, the pre-HERO Act five-years wording beside the current six-months test, and the assessors’ page prints a fiscal 2027 filing cutoff of March 15, 2027, a fortnight before the statute’s April 1. The Veteran’s Services department page describes the office as the Commonwealth’s chapter 115 administrator for Holbrook - applications "investigated and monitored on a weekly and monthly basis" - and names George Andes the Veteran Service Officer with Paul Marshall the Clerical Assistant. Its contact block lists the office at 74 Pond Street (Second Floor), Braintree (781-794-8217), where the EOVS directory’s Braintree row lists the same officer; the directory’s Holbrook row instead lists Andes at Holbrook Town Hall, 50 North Franklin Street (781-353-5559, [email protected]) - ask which line serves Holbrook. The page records the department’s flag placement with the Department of Public Works and a local Scout troop ahead of the annual Memorial Day ceremony. Chapter 115 benefits, the Commonwealth’s needs-based help with rent, food, fuel and medical costs, are applied for through Holbrook Veteran’s Services: George Andes, Veteran Service Officer. Their amounts are set by the Commonwealth and are the same in every city and town; the statewide chapter 115 entry describes them.