muni taxes (Portland, Charleston: fit in, sales, insurance)

[rgrene]

I am moving back to the Portland area next year from Pittsburgh. My primary residence will be in Ft Lauderdale. I will be spending 3 to 4 months in ME during warm weather. I am looking for a community where there is a low tax rate. I envision a 2-2 condo with an attached garage. When I lived there 12 years ago, I remember that the Portland taxes were significantly higher than Cape Eliz. and Scarboro. What community has the best tax rates?

[WhoFanMe]

Welcome rgrene.

The tax rate is somewhat irrelevant because a community can have a low mill rate, but the homes could be evaluated much higher than a neighboring community with a higher mill rate, but lower home evaluations. The best thing to do is look at specific properties and see how they fit into your budget - principal, interest, taxes, insurance and condo fees.

[corgis]

I've read this post over and over trying to understand what "MUNI" means - I gather it's a tax of some kind, but all I can figure out is a Maine University tax of some sort, can't figure out the other two letters. We have property taxes, Personal property taxes, sales tax and some of our cities have user fees to drive and/or work in that city. (Which I refuse to pay, but mensaguy has to pay to work in the city). I thought the word might be municipal, but I've never hear of a municipal tax, unless it's another word for property tax, then why wouldn't they call it property tax. I know some cities have a city tax on top of state tax, property tax and personal property tax, so I'm going around in circles trying to figure it out.

I wish people would spell out what they are asking.

[Maine Writer]

Muni is short for municipal.

[Zymer]

Huh?

"mensaguy has to pay to work in the city"

How does that work? How is it enforced? Who does he have to pay?

[corgis]

Originally Posted by Zymer

Huh?

"mensaguy has to pay to work in the city"

How does that work? How is it enforced? Who does he have to pay?

Zymer - his employer witholds 2.00 + tax a week as a privilege for working inside the city limits. Every employer has to do that now. The employers then remit the funds to the city, each and every month. So, because he works in the city and drives on their streets, he pays $8. a month, unless there are 5 weeks in the month, like this one for the right to work in the city of Charleston. And what's worse is that the city can double the fee any time they want without any kind of election or input from the people of the city. They have already doubled it once, I hear rumbles of it doubling again by the end of the year. So, that's $96.00 a year plus tax to coming out of his paycheck right now. I hate it, hate it.

[Zymer]

That doesn't sound right, to me. I'd be raising some holy hell over that.

[corgis]

Zymer - Yep, the city declared it legal - here, have a read.

Welcome to Charleston WV (http://www.cityofcharleston.org/collector.htm - broken link)

[Zymer]

Originally Posted by corgis

Zymer - Yep, the city declared it legal - here, have a read.

Welcome to Charleston WV (http://www.cityofcharleston.org/collector.htm - broken link)

Wow. I would probably be going to jail...

[Submariner]

Originally Posted by rgrene

I am moving back to the Portland area next year from Pittsburgh. My primary residence will be in Ft Lauderdale. I will be spending 3 to 4 months in ME during warm weather. I am looking for a community where there is a low tax rate. I envision a 2-2 condo with an attached garage. When I lived there 12 years ago, I remember that the Portland taxes were significantly higher than Cape Eliz. and Scarboro. What community has the best tax rates?

Every township has it's own different mil rate.

And as was mentioned while one township might have a low mil rate, they might also have high assessed values.

A good starting point though is mil rate.