Senior Tax Exemptions

Warwick - May 30, 2026

A recent Warwick Beacon article discussed whether the City should increase property tax exemptions for seniors as home values and living costs continue to rise.

According to the article, Warwick homeowners have seen property values increase by more than 115% over the last decade, while many senior citizens continue to live on fixed incomes and face rising costs for housing, food, utilities, insurance, and healthcare.

Yet when the discussion turned to increasing senior tax relief, Warwick Tax Assessor Neal Dupuis expressed concerns that expanding exemptions would shift more of the tax burden onto other taxpayers.

That raises an important question:

Why is Warwick willing to spend approximately $12 million annually providing lifetime healthcare benefits to retired city employees, including some retirees under age 65 receiving family healthcare plans that can cost taxpayers $25,000 to $30,000 per year, but reluctant to discuss meaningful increases in tax relief for senior homeowners?

According to Dupuis, 8,000 households receive the $415 senior tax exemption for a cost of approximately $3.3 million. Increasing the exemption by 25% would cost the city about $824,000.

But Dupuis says we cannot afford that!

Keep in mind, in the mayor's 2027 budget just approved by the City Council and reported on at the link below, many city employees will receive between a 4% and 5% annual raise. Many raises range from 10% to over 20%. In total, $3.5 million in raises were approved in the budget.

Dupuis does not seem to have a problem with your tax dollars increasing to fund these raises!

See examples of the FY2027 proposed salary increases →

Many Warwick seniors have seen their Medicare costs increase significantly. Blue Cross Blue Shield Medicare Plan 65 premiums for many Warwick seniors are increasing 14.4%, approximately $500 annually. At the same time, property taxes, insurance costs, utilities, gas, and grocery costs are skyrocketing. For many seniors, they must cut back on basics to pay for rising city costs.

The city currently provides hundreds of retired municipal employees with free lifetime healthcare benefits that most private-sector workers could only dream of. Meanwhile, many senior homeowners receive only a few hundred dollars in property tax relief that has not increased in years despite decades of paying taxes that have supported the rising cost of city services.