Here’s where property taxes are hitting Mainers the hardest

By Daniel O’Connor, Bangor Daily News Staff

Property taxes have been the subject of some of Maine’s biggest local political battles of the last year, but they hit people far differently across the state.

High taxes also aren’t confined to the pricey coast. Residents of two small towns in Oxford County pay more than those in any other Maine community, according to data recently presented to a state task force that will examine solutions to high taxes over the next year.

Maine has been in upheaval over the subject this year. In Washington County, high taxes contributed to the failure of a bond measure aimed at digging out of a budget crisis. In Lisbon, a tax revolt led to conservative victories and may ultimately lead the town to abolish its council. Paradoxically, it has presented a barrier to revaluations meant to make taxes fairer.

Tax rates vary widely between Maine communities. In the Oxford County town of Hanover, the town’s property taxes cost the median homeowner 9.2% of their income, the highest total in the state. That’s in large part due to a low median household income of just over $32,000.

Stow, a town roughly an hour south, isn’t far behind. The town of less than 400 along the New Hampshire border has a median homeowner tax bill of just under $3,500. Christine Carone, the town clerk, blamed a high county tax burden and the school budget. Services are limited, but educating the town’s 41 students and clearing roads in the mountain town is costly.

“It’s a small town,” she said. “We don’t have any services.”

One of the issues in Stow is nontaxable property. At a meeting last week, the task force heard that cities and towns on average must generate 10% more in tax revenue because of that land, much of which is owned by towns, the state and nonprofits. 

Service centers, including Maine’s biggest cities and towns, pay 18% more because of that on average. But it’s also a rural issue. The pressure caused by nontaxable land has a heavy impact in Aroostook and Piscataquis counties, where the state owns large amounts of land.

This new data is only one product of the state task force’s work. Officials in the group said they will release an interim report on their findings on Tuesday, including a variety of policy options. But there will be no easy fixes to a complicated property tax system that underpins municipal government and school budgets across a state marked by a high level of local control.

Sen. Bruce Bickford, R- Auburn, a task force member, declined to share specifics about what he expects the report to include, but he added that the group seems to have moved away from increasing property taxes on vacation homes, a proposal he called “unfair.”

Longer-term recommendations will come next year. The group’s imminent report should include improvements to the existing Property Tax Fairness Credit, Nicholas Cloutier, a Scarborough assessor appointed to the task force by House Speaker Ryan Fecteau, D-Biddeford. That program has drawn good reviews from the group hired to present data to the group.

“That could provide a quicker relief for people while we’re figuring out the longer term solutions,” he said.

Daniel O’Connor is a Report for America corps member who covers rural government as part of the partnership between the Bangor Daily News and The Maine Monitor, with additional support from BDN and Monitor readers.