The HERO Act

On July 31st, 2024 the Massachusetts Legislature passed H.4976, An Act honoring, empowering, and recognizing our servicemembers and veterans, and is now pending before the Governor for her signature. The Governor has 10 days (from the bill’s passage) to sign the legislation. If she does not sign the bill within 10 days, it automatically becomes law.  Governor Healey originally proposed this bill and is expected to sign it into law. 

This bill includes more than a dozen reforms to modernize and increase access to benefit veterans, including expanding access to behavioral health treatment, allowing new local-option property tax exemptions for service members, and aligning the state’s definition of a veteran with the U.S. Veterans Affairs Department to cover a wider range of former veterans and their family members. 

The bill also directs the Executive Office of Veterans’ Services to study property tax abatements and exemptions for veterans and surviving spouses. Some of the provisions they must include in their report (due 12/31/24) include evaluating tax exemptions in other states, the usage of a sliding scale for exemptions based on disability, the relationship between tax exemptions and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs disability rating, the financial impact of these exemptions on disabled veterans, and the anticipated costs of the exemptions.  

Ensuring that the state is doing everything that it can to support the Commonwealth’s veterans is one of the most important responsibilities that I have as an elected official. This legislation not only provides increased support for veterans in Massachusetts, through tax credits and enhanced benefits, it also goes to even greater lengths to honor gold star families.