The new tax bills are here! Horror stories... (Orono, Old Town: home, buying)

[willb]

The deal on those properties in California is that some sucker is going to buy them for 600K and be stuck with a 6,000.00$ tax bill for a 140k condo. I guess taxes keep the community going. In a smaller community you can have more say in how your tax money gets used.

[SteveMartin]

Originally Posted by L-88

Wasn't there a referendum vote in Maine a couple years ago that spoke to what you speak about, but the people voted it down?

We have Prop. 13 here in California. Property tax is 1% of the purchase price of property, and that tax rate can be raised no more than 2% a year.

I purchased two condos in Orange County in 1998 for a total purchase price of $140,000...my property tax on both amounted to $1400 a year. Ten years later I will be paying about $1650 on the same properties now valued at more than $600,000.

When we left Maine in 1998 our three bedroom one bath 1320 square foot home on an acre and a third of land in North Saco cost $2100 in taxes.

You guys need to vote in some kind of tax relief bill, or the state will price everyone out of their homes.

Yep. Maine is becoming absolutely ridiculous. I am being asked to pay $1400 for property assessed at $80,000 (which is way high too) and you are being assessed $1650 for property assessed at $600,000?!?!?

Talk about ludicrous. Something is going to have to give here....

[flycessna]

Take a city like Lewiston who's mil rate right now is about $24......Because of all of these Suposed "non-profit" BUSINESS'S! The mil rate could be cut in half if they paid taxes. I get SOOOOOO disgusted with this........CMMC, St. mary's, Bates College......rake in millions of dollars and pay out HUGE saleries....but yet are considered "non-Profits"

[genmomto5]

Originally Posted by dmyankee

My wife has letters kept in the family for centuries, literally. One uncle was in intelligence and was captured on a hill in Georgia during the Civil War. He spent some brutal time in several POW camps. The letters written by those young men of that era, are so articulate and the penmanship far superior to modern day products of the public schools, let alone colleges. I will bet many hardly made it to the 8th grade.

I suspect that many of the letters we can read from bygone eras were kept because they were worth keeping. Yes there were some very intelligent well-spoken individuals then. There are some around today too. If we assume from reading a smattering of cherished letters that everyone was more literate than kids being educated today I think we are discounting our own thoughtful, well-spoken youth.

[flycessna]

Originally Posted by Maineah

Our bill is based on somewhere around 80% of assessed value and I believe that was assesed at around $300,000.We're taxed on about $265,000.
The supposed market value WAS $440,000 at the end of the pricing bubble which recently went bust. My original post was kind of misleading now that I read it again... My point was this place was NEVER worth that kind of money! I believe the $300,000 assessment was way out of line as well. I think our house is worth slightly over $200,000 in my opinion. We went from an assessment of $160,000 to $265,000 over night! Our bill went from $1900 to the $4,400 it is currently. We complained but it fell on deaf ears. I believe that now we're well below the original assessment of a few years ago though no reassessment is planned.
The house across the street was originally listed at $670,000, has been reduced twice to $599,000. It is still quite over valued at that price and stands empty. It's not even worth the $550,000 the last owners paid for it. My guess for that house would be around $400,000 maybe $450,000 as it has 2 more acres than our place.

As far as services, we have the fire, rescue,police and plowing, plus the schools. We have our own water, sewer, and trash collection.
It's no bargain here believe me.
In my opinion houses and land should never be reassessed in value for tax purposes and should only be assessed when sold.
People should not have to cough up an ever increasing tax bill twice a year based on some "expert" opinion of what the value of the home "might" be on the open market.
We paid $88,000 for this place when we bought it and that's what we should be taxed on until someone else buys it!

Hi Maineah, Here in Auburn we had many similiar complaints about home values skyrocketing and their respective tax bills skyrocketing with them.

make no mistake though....if your paying more in your tax bill then the city/town is spending more....the only time you could really attribute an increase in your taxes to the increase in value of your home is when your home.....for whatever particular reason....increased in value much more the the other homes in town.

So even of everyones home was kept at the origional value of say 88k...your taxes would still be about the same.....the mil rate would be huge to reflect that...but thats how it works.

[JViello]

Originally Posted by flycessna

Take a city like Lewiston who's mil rate right now is about $24......Because of all of these Suposed "non-profit" BUSINESS'S! The mil rate could be cut in half if they paid taxes. I get SOOOOOO disgusted with this........CMMC, St. mary's, Bates College......rake in millions of dollars and pay out HUGE saleries....but yet are considered "non-Profits"

That is a statement I would expect from a lib in Southern New England - I'm surprised to see it in the Maine forum.

It's easy to lash out at non profits and lay the blame at their feet but you are looking at the wrong source. It would be nice to see some hard facts and figures to back up your rehtoric.

Non profits for the most part give far more back to the community than they would via tax revenue.

The real crooks are in your city government.

[flycessna]

Originally Posted by JViello

That is a statement I would expect from a lib in Southern New England - I'm surprised to see it in the Maine forum.

It's easy to lash out at non profits and lay the blame at their feet but you are looking at the wrong source. It would be nice to see some hard facts and figures to back up your rehtoric.

Non profits for the most part give far more back to the community than they would via tax revenue.

The real crooks are in your city government.

I'd do more home work before you post a reply like this. I've never been called a LIB before....I didn't know non profits was a conservative platform??oh well.

You don't have to lecture me about government spending being out of control. But lewiston has had an administrator who has cut staff and waste in a major way, but still the city struggels attracting more business. we have Bates college buying up land building, and charging one of the highest tuitions in the country. several years ago Bates was recognised as doing the least for its communtity. CMMC...hmm. we can pay half a million dollars to our managers but not have to pay taxes.......but small business, the self employed, *********! First lets make everyone pay taxes.........then we can fight how much governement is spending.

[SteveMartin]

Personally, I'd love to hear more from people about new assessments in Maine.

Somebody had better wake up in Augusta and say "NO MORE!" to Maine having the highest real estate tax percentage of income in the country, and they better do it now! I can not believe the gall of some people thinking it would be OK to double people's taxes this year with folks being forced to "lock in" heating oil this winter at over $5.00 per gallon.

Are we truly being run by a bunch of soul-less demons, or...?

[dmyankee]

Originally Posted by JViello

That is a statement I would expect from a lib in Southern New England - I'm surprised to see it in the Maine forum.

It's easy to lash out at non profits and lay the blame at their feet but you are looking at the wrong source. It would be nice to see some hard facts and figures to back up your rehtoric.

Non profits for the most part give far more back to the community than they would via tax revenue.

The real crooks are in your city government.

The huge number of non profits is exactly the main issue driving Bangor's real estate tax burden!

[Maine Writer]

Originally Posted by SteveMartin

Somebody had better wake up in Augusta and say "NO MORE!" to Maine having the highest real estate tax percentage of income in the country, and they better do it now! I can not believe the gall of some people thinking it would be OK to double people's taxes this year with folks being forced to "lock in" heating oil this winter at over $5.00 per gallon.

So what will you do about this? Run for office? I think that's a good idea.