Session Laws

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:

SECTION 1. Notwithstanding the provisions of section eleven of chapter six hundred and fifty-three of the acts of nineteen hundred and eighty-two, or any other general or special law, rule or regulation to the contrary, if the city of Somerville is certified by the commissioner of revenue as having assessed all property at its full and fair market value for fiscal year nineteen hundred and eighty-six, any person who shall qualify for any exemption under clause Seventeenth C, Twenty-second, Twenty-second A to Twenty-second E, inclusive, Thirty-seventh A, Forty-first B, Forty-second or Forty-third of section five of chapter fifty-nine of the General Laws, shall be entitled, for a tax assessed for fiscal year nineteen hundred and eighty-six, to an additional exemption which shall be sixty per cent of said exemption for which the person is qualified; provided, however, that the total additional exemption granted to any individual under this section shall not be greater than three hundred and fifty dollars; and provided further, that in no instance shall the taxable valuation of such property, after all applicable exemptions, be reduced below ten per cent of its full and fair cash valuation except through the application of section eight A of chapter fifty-eight or clause Eighteenth of section five of chapter fifty-nine of the General Laws.

The state treasurer shall annually reimburse the city of Somerville under this section only for the amount which otherwise would have been reimbursed under the respective clauses of chapter fifty-nine had this section not been enacted.

SECTION 2. Notwithstanding any general or special law, rule or regulation to the contrary, in fiscal year nineteen hundred and eighty-six any person receiving a tax bill for residential property in the city of Somerville which he himself occupies as his principal residence shall within sixty days from the date upon which the property tax bills are mailed make payment on so much of the bill as represents an increase over that person's net tax bill for the same property in fiscal year nineteen hundred and eighty-five, without incurring interest. Net tax bill shall mean that amount which reflects the assessed valuation in fiscal year nineteen hundred and eighty-five times the tax rate for fiscal year nineteen hundred and eighty-five minus any statutory exemptions, but exclusive of any liens or betterments. So much of such a taxpayer's fiscal year nineteen hundred and eighty-six tax bill as is less than or equal to the fiscal year nineteen hundred and eighty-five net tax bill on the same property must be paid within thirty days from the date upon which the tax bills are mailed without incurring interest. Any liens or betterments which are added to and become part of the fiscal year nineteen hundred and eighty-six tax pursuant to the General Laws shall not be calculated to be part of the increase eligible for payment within sixty days pursuant to the first sentence of this paragraph.

SECTION 3. Any tax bill, including any tax bill subject to the provisions of section two, that remains unpaid after the expiration of the time limits set for payment in said section shall be subject to all penalties and procedures provided for in the General Laws for unpaid property taxes.

SECTION 4. This act shall take effect upon its passage.