Here is an update on the Property Tax Postponement Program for the elderly and disabled.

This is the long established state program that allowed low-income seniors and disabled individuals to have their property taxes paid by the state in exchange for permitting the state to place a lien on their property and charge interest on the loan currently 5 percent.

The program was suspended in 2009 because of the state's budget difficulties. The suspension could lead to the loss of some elderly and/or disabled individuals' homes. Many of these individuals had been on the program for many years and are living on very limited incomes with no other means of paying their property taxes.

In 2009 Assemblyman Bob Blumenfield introduced AB1029. It would have enabled some participants to continue on the program, but the bill got stuck in the Assembly Appropriations Committee and never proceeded forward.

I recently wrote that the chairman of the Assembly Appropriations Committee had deemed the bill low priority. It appears AB1029 has been returned to the chief clerk of the Assembly, where it died.

However, AB1029 has been replaced by AB1718. This bill passed the Assembly 76 to 0 and is now before the Senate. It would shift the burden of paying the property taxes from the state to the individual counties willing to do so.

Funding for property tax postponement loans would come from county deposits into the Senior Citizens and Disabled Citizens

Property Tax Postponement Fund, as well as net interest earnings to the fund that is, the difference between the rate charged on the postponement loans and the rate paid on deposits by participating counties.

The bill requires that funding for the program come from non-state General Fund sources, except for initial administrative costs. AB1718 also authorizes county tax collectors to cancel any delinquent penalties and interest owed by claimants for the 2009-10 and 2010-11 fiscal years.

Now we have to lobby Fred Keeley, the county tax collector, and the county Board of Supervisors to get Santa Cruz County into the program.

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"Memories Are Made Of This," the 2010 Santa Cruz Follies Show, is coming to the Santa Cruz Civic Auditorium Sept. 15-18.

The group is already taking reservations with incentives like reserved seating for groups of 10 or more. Tickets are currently available at the Market Street Senior Center, 222 Market St., Santa Cruz.

For more information on this great show go to www.santacruzfollies.org.

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The next meeting of the Santa Cruz County Seniors Commission will be 1:30-3:30 p.m. Aug. 17 at the Santa Cruz County Regional Transportation office, 1523 Pacific Ave., Santa Cruz.

Contact Chuck Molnar at 454-2355.