The new tax bills are here! Horror stories... (Augusta: renting, credit card)

[forest beekeeper]

Originally Posted by SteveMartin

Well, we can STILL abolish the Federal Department of Education!!

We actually had a candidate for president talking about that again this year.

I like children, and I am very much concerned about education.

We would be strongly in support of abolishing the NEA and all Federal Education folks.

[mainerwoman]

One of the reasons why dh and I picked a private school for our kids was the issue of special education. There is no one-on-one at our school. You either behave yourself or your out the door.

[SteveMartin]

That is the way it should be at every school.

[SteveMartin]

Well we had a public hearing in our town last night. The state assessor was invited to open the meeting and he basically chaired the meeting.

He responded first to a chart I handed out showing that similar towns in southern Aroostook were being assessed by him at much less total valuation (some almost half of ours) on a per capita basis, including two towns right next door (Cary and Hodgdon). These towns, like ours, have basically 0 industry, no lakefront property, and are quite poor. Actually, I believe our town is by far the poorest of the three, and yet we are assessed at $62,000 per person in Amity, whereas Cary is at $37,000 and Hodgdon at $39,000.

He said that this "nice study" I did was irrelevant, because his assessment is based only on actual real estate sales done in our town in recent years. It would appear (and I am going to find out) that the 8 sales upon which he based our entire inflated $11.5 million valuation (for a town with 83 homes) were out of state buyers coming in and buying property on speculation. These people have no idea what REAL value is for these properties because they are used to their multi-million dollar real estate environments and economies that still pay $40-50,000 for entry level jobs.

To be fair to the assessor, he is only following precedent as he was trained, and there are other methods for assessing towns, even beyond the two others he mentioned which might not work well in our case and these other methods are not precluded by statute. You can not assess towns like ours fairly based on a few sales of existing structures to out of staters. But the state assessors' total valuation of our town is only the tip of our iceberg of a problem...

Of course, he laid all the blame for the doubled tax bills on us and the selectmen for voting to raise the $92,000 for the coming tax year at our annual town meeting in April (before the school and county taxes came in--bringing the total to $262,000.)

He took up all of the meeting time (despite saying repeatedly that he had to leave) so that we could not question the selectmen as to the following impervious fact:

We are being asked to raise $262,000 this year. Last year we raised $245,000. That is only a 7% increase. SO...why are people seeing their tax estimates doubled! I tried my best to keep people there to discuss the real issues, but eveyone was mesmerized by the witty state assessor, and traumatized by information overload and ready to go home after his presentation.

What we still must determine from the local assessor is:

1. The total acreage of our town.
2. The total acreage that she has assessed.
2. The amount of acreage that is not in tree growth.
3. Where, exactly, have we lost assessed taxable value requiring such large jumps in taxes to many individuals in order to make up for it.

Until we have those answers, we really have nothing.

Anybody else have any theories as to how our taxes can be doubled with a budget that is "only" 7% higher??

[Maine Writer]

Originally Posted by mainerwoman

One of the reasons why dh and I picked a private school for our kids was the issue of special education. There is no one-on-one at our school. You either behave yourself or your out the door.

Does the school offer special ed services?

[SteveMartin]

The school should not HAVE to offer special ed services. That is the fallacy that is destroying our tax structure.

[mainebrokerman]

Originally Posted by SteveMartin

Well we had a public hearing in our town last night. The state assessor was invited to open the meeting and he basically chaired the meeting.

He responded first to a chart I handed out showing that similar towns in southern Aroostook were being assessed by him at much less total valuation (some almost half of ours) on a per capita basis, including two towns right next door (Cary and Hodgdon). These towns, like ours, have basically 0 industry, no lakefront property, and are quite poor. Actually, I believe our town is by far the poorest of the three, and yet we are assessed at $62,000 per person in Amity, whereas Cary is at $37,000 and Hodgdon at $39,000.

He said that this "nice study" I did was irrelevant, because his assessment is based only on actual real estate sales done in our town in recent years. It would appear (and I am going to find out) that the 8 sales upon which he based our entire inflated $11.5 million valuation (for a town with 83 homes) were out of state buyers coming in and buying property on speculation. These people have no idea what REAL value is for these properties because they are used to their multi-million dollar real estate environments and economies that still pay $40-50,000 for entry level jobs.

To be fair to the assessor, he is only following precedent as he was trained, and there are other methods for assessing towns, even beyond the two others he mentioned which might not work well in our case and these other methods are not precluded by statute. You can not assess towns like ours fairly based on a few sales of existing structures to out of staters. But the state assessors' total valuation of our town is only the tip of our iceberg of a problem...

Of course, he laid all the blame for the doubled tax bills on us and the selectmen for voting to raise the $92,000 for the coming tax year at our annual town meeting in April (before the school and county taxes came in--bringing the total to $262,000.)

He took up all of the meeting time (despite saying repeatedly that he had to leave) so that we could not question the selectmen as to the following impervious fact:

We are being asked to raise $262,000 this year. Last year we raised $245,000. That is only a 7% increase. SO...why are people seeing their tax estimates doubled! I tried my best to keep people there to discuss the real issues, but eveyone was mesmerized by the witty state assessor, and traumatized by information overload and ready to go home after his presentation.

What we still must determine from the local assessor is:

1. The total acreage of our town.
2. The total acreage that she has assessed.
2. The amount of acreage that is not in tree growth.
3. Where, exactly, have we lost assessed taxable value requiring such large jumps in taxes to many individuals in order to make up for it.

Until we have those answers, we really have nothing.

Anybody else have any theories as to how our taxes can be doubled with a budget that is "only" 7% higher??

they must have adopted Auburns' template for property tax increases, officially called "Grab your ankles and Grin"

[SteveMartin]

Funny you should mention Auburn. That's where he's from...

[Maine Writer]

I can't think of a reason! Even if the assessment goes through the roof the town still only needs only $X to operate. Shouldn't the mill rate drop?

[forest beekeeper]

Originally Posted by SteveMartin

Well we had a public hearing in our town last night.

We had a hearing.

... The state assessor was invited to open the meeting and he basically chaired the meeting.

First mistake.

... To be fair to the assessor, he is only following precedent as he was trained,

... Of course, he laid all the blame for the doubled tax bills on us and the selectmen

... He took up all of the meeting time (despite saying repeatedly that he had to leave)

... I tried my best to keep people there to discuss the real issues, but eveyone was mesmerized by the witty state assessor, and traumatized by information overload and ready to go home after his presentation.

He sounds like a skilled operator, He has done this before, and knows how to handle such a room of dis-satisfied folk.

1. You called the meeting, which he chaired.

2. He filled the time with his presentation, which numbed the hearers and put them into a 'culture shock' zombie-like state.

3. and he left before you could gather your wits to tar and feather him.