Mid-coast towns - Anything to avoid?

[kettlepot]

Regarding Mil rates, could it be that Rockport has a low mil rate because they recently re-assessed all of their property to a higher level and therefore don't need a high mil rate to bring in the money for the city's budget, while Rockland hasn't reassessed their property in years and years, and need a much higher mil rate to collect the money the city off of an artificially low valuation?

Of course given the real estate debacle this could actually be reversed right now because of a declining market, but over the more normal trajectory, a lot of time since the last re-valuation can create the need for a high mill rate.

To provide an example:

In the real world there are two $200,000 homes. Home 1 was assessed at $160,000 in 2009 and has a mil rate of 12.0 for a tax of $1,920. Home 2 was last assessed in 2001 for $120,000 and has a mil rate of 16.0 for a tax of $1,920. Each is paying .96% of the real world value of his home in taxes, but each mil rate is dramatically different.

[retiredtinbender]

Originally Posted by kettlepot

Regarding Mil rates, could it be that Rockport has a low mil rate because they recently re-assessed all of their property to a higher level and therefore don't need a high mil rate to bring in the money for the city's budget, while Rockland hasn't reassessed their property in years and years, and need a much higher mil rate to collect the money the city off of an artificially low valuation?

Of course given the real estate debacle this could actually be reversed right now because of a declining market, but over the more normal trajectory, a lot of time since the last re-valuation can create the need for a high mill rate.

To provide an example:

In the real world there are two $200,000 homes. Home 1 was assessed at $160,000 in 2009 and has a mil rate of 12.0 for a tax of $1,920. Home 2 was last assessed in 2001 for $120,000 and has a mil rate of 16.0 for a tax of $1,920. Each is paying .96% of the real world value of his home in taxes, but each mil rate is dramatically different.

The same was supposedly true in 2007 when we had our reval. However, the sale prices continued to increase for the next 2-3 years. You can't go by the news media, you have to watch the actual area sales.

[chaosX5]

Originally Posted by forest beekeeper

This has been brought up previously for discussion. So far nobody has found a single document that tracks all municipal Mil-Rates through-out the state.

After the state puts out how much they want, then each town does it's own thing to determine how much they will add onto it to support their budget and finally the voodoo of determining their Mil-Rate.

Some towns post their Mil-Rate on their town website, other towns do not, and of course many towns have no website.

A year ago I went to the town West of us on a day that their town office was open [they were only open two days a week] and we had a very nice chat to learn about what all services they offered. Among other things I learned their Mil-Rate was exactly twice my town's Mil-Rate. I also learned that the town immediately to our South has a Mil-Rate that was three times [ +/- 0.5% ] my Mil-Rate.

In my own investigating this topic I have learned that from town to town the Mil-Rate can vary over a very wide band width.

If one town charges you $100/year for a specific assessed value, the next town might charge you $200 or $300 for the exact same assessed value.

It would be nice, if someone did the research to compare all towns of Maine to compile this data.

is this what you mean.............? (I hope the link works)
Untitled Document (http://www.maine.gov/revenue/propertytax/municipalservices/fullvaluerates.htm - broken link)

[AustinB]

Originally Posted by chaosX5

is this what you mean.............? (I hope the link works)
Untitled Document (http://www.maine.gov/revenue/propertytax/municipalservices/fullvaluerates.htm - broken link)

I live in Brooklin and the chart that you showed did not have our correct mil rates for those years. I'm not really sure what the chart represents...

[Submariner]

Originally Posted by chaosX5

is this what you mean.............? (I hope the link works)
Untitled Document (http://www.maine.gov/revenue/propertytax/municipalservices/fullvaluerates.htm - broken link)

Sweet!

Clearly the place to be is:
CodyVille Plt at 0.00

Followed by Garfield Plt at 0.8,
Lake View Plt 2.1.
and Sandy River Plt 3.0

Our Township is at 0.00866mils which I think is 0.866


Thank you

[Northern Maine Land Man]

Codyville has no town roads to plow and their last student graduated from high school. Their left over office supplies will last through the year and their "politicians" are volunteers. I hesitate to call them politicians at all. They are actually citizen patriots. Every year they get a nice letter from the State Police asking if they would like the State Police to take over issuing the town's concealed weapon permits. The selectmen send a polite replay right back; "No thanks. We'll keep our freedom."