Senior Citizens Allowed to Work Off Taxes

For years, 72-year-old Patrick Swanberry watched, frustrated, as the town raised his property tax while his fixed income held steady.

So it didn’t take much persuasion for the retired corrections officer to take Chelmsford up on its offer of a $500 tax break earlier this year--even if it meant postponing a round or two of golf and going back to work for a while.

For 100 hours over the summer, Swanberry stood guard at Freeman’s Lake, keeping the out-of-towners away from its sandy beach and shade trees.

His $5-an-hour “pay” wasn’t quite on par with his pre-retirement salary, but then the gate-crashers he ran into probably weren’t as ornery as those he encountered at the Middlesex House of Corrections.

Chelmsford is one of a growing number of Massachusetts cities and towns dangling $500 tax rebates in front of older people in the hope that they’ll tackle some of the jobs that town employees can’t seem to find time to do.

Seniors collect tax payments, deliver meals, put books on library shelves or any number of other tasks.

“There are jobs that are important that are No. 101 on the priority list of the 100 things you need to do,” said Chris Gaffney, who coordinates the program for Hopedale. “They’re jobs you just can’t get to.”

Job placements are based on questionnaires that ask about past work experience, interests and physical limitations.

“We’re not going to have them up on ladders or buildings or carrying heavy things or anything like that,” said Tracy Blais, who administers the program in West Newbury, where she is finance director.

For Swanberry, his hours on the job seemed more like, well, a day at the beach sometimes.

“I more or less enjoyed the job, work-wise,” he said. “It was no task whatsoever as far as the 100 hours go. I would have liked to even stayed.”

And the tax break “was a tremendous help,” he said. He’s already asked for a spot in the program next year.

“I’m on a fixed income, and anything that comes up above what you’re already getting is like taxation on your own. You don’t have it. Your income doesn’t go according to your tax increase,” he said.

The program got its Massachusetts start four years ago in Chelmsford, which took its lead from a similar program in Littleton, Colo. There, seniors are recruited to work in the city’s schools.

Sandy Markwood, director of human services programs for the National Assn. of Counties, said that in addition to Massachusetts and Colorado, counties in South Carolina and California offer programs in which older people can work in exchange for tax breaks.

“It’s not widespread but . . . it’s an idea that’s catching on,” she said. “It’s not like anybody’s getting something for nothing. They’re working.”