West Bridgewater Veterans’ Property Tax Exemptions (Clauses 22 to 22F)

The Town of West Bridgewater 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 Daniela Nilsson the Principal Assessor and Marianne Pierce and Mary Lone the secretaries, with the board electing Paula M. Bunker the chairwoman (term expires 2029), Cheryl A. Smith (2027) and Molly P. Smith (2028), at Town Hall, 65 N. Main Street (508-894-1200, option 3, fax 508-894-1202). The department’s REVISED FY27 Statutory Exemption & CPA Guidelines sheet prints the veterans’ clauses line by line at the statutes - $400 under clause 22, $750 under 22A, $1,250 under 22B, $1,500 under 22C, 100 per cent under 22D and 22F and $1,000 under 22E - beside the sheet’s own "WB Exemption" column: $528.39 under clause 22, $990.73 under 22A, $1,651.22 under 22B, $1,981.47 under 22C and $1,320.98 under 22E, the statutes raised by both years’ adjustments and increased a quarter, what clauses 22I and 22J at 25 per cent produce. The sheet says an increase of 25 per cent "will be exempted after the first year, and will remain at that amount every year thereafter, provided that it is voted at the Annual Town Meeting"; the annual warrant of May 11, 2026 proposed, as Article 5, accepting section 5C½ - "an additional real estate exemption for taxpayers who are granted personal exemptions on their domiciles ... including certain blind persons, veterans, surviving spouses and seniors" - up to 25 per cent of the personal exemption effective for fiscal years beginning on or after July 1, 2026, its own table raising the veterans’ clause 22 from $400 to $500, and no minutes of the meeting are posted, so the entry asks the assessors. Applications for fiscal 2027 are due April 1, 2027. The town’s Veterans Agent page names David Farrell the Veteran’s Agent at Town Hall, 65 N. Main Street (508-436-7211), hours Tuesday and Thursday 9 am to 2 pm - the officer the EOVS directory’s September 7, 2026 West Bridgewater row lists at the same address and number, its email at [email protected], a domain that does not resolve while the town serves from westbridgewaterma.org. The page describes the Executive Office of Veterans’ Services’ mission and the needs-based benefits program "M.G.L. C. 115" administered through Veterans’ Service Officers in each municipality, and runs the town’s Hometown Hero Banner program through the Veterans Services Office. The town’s records carry West Bridgewater Post No. 66 of the American Legion, the post a 1960 special act authorized the town to convey land to, and the 2021 tri-town Veterans Day commemoration program on the town’s file server names the Veterans Agent beside Bridgewater’s VFW Post 2125 color guard and East Bridgewater’s American Legion Post 91. The town’s cases sit in the Brockton District Court, which serves Abington, Bridgewater, Brockton, East Bridgewater, West Bridgewater and Whitman and which the Specialty Courts Department lists among the Commonwealth’s seven veterans’ treatment courts. Chapter 115 benefits, the Commonwealth’s needs-based help with rent, food, fuel and medical costs, are applied for through West Bridgewater Veterans Agent: David Farrell, Veteran’s Agent. Their amounts are set by the Commonwealth and are the same in every city and town; the statewide chapter 115 entry describes them.