A bill to protect the working waterfront from escalating property tax hikes unanimously passed the House and Senate Tuesday, setting off a round of applause and thumbs-up in chambers.
The proposal, which would tax waterfront land used for commercial fishing based on its current use, will need voter approval statewide because it changes the Maine Constitution. If passed on the November ballot, it would afford commercial fishing businesses on the water the same protection against property tax hikes that is now given to forest, farmland and open space.
Sen. Dennis Damon, D-Hancock, who chaired the special tax reform committee that brought back the working waterfront proposal for this legislative session, said the unanimous, bipartisan support for the amendment bodes well for its eventual passage on the ballot.
“It is very difficult to get the level of support that came out of this Legislature” for a constitutional change, Damon said. “It sends an unmistakable message to the voters of how important this particular proposal is.”
A similar proposal was on the ballot in 2000 and was defeated by fewer than 4,000 votes.
Senate President Beth Edmonds, D-Freeport, said she was “delighted” by the vote, but cautious about the future.
“It remains to be seen how much the voters get,” in terms of other options for property tax relief now being reviewed in the Taxation Committee. “Some voters feel this only addresses one part of the problem,” she said, and might be more inclined to support it if it was included as part of a package.
The special tax committee proposed a series of constitutional amendments, including a local option valuation cap on a person’s primary residence. The proposal would give cities and towns the option of limiting to the rate of inflation the increase in value of homestead land, or the property on which a person’s home sits. When a person sells, they would have to pay five years in back taxes equal to the difference of what they would have paid if the land had been assessed at full value.
Also before the committee is a local option circuit breaker, offering property tax breaks based on a person’s income, and a local option homestead exemption, offering more than the $13,000 exemption just approved for homeowners statewide.
State Rep. Leila Percy, D-Phippsburg, who has lobbied her fellow legislators to get the working waterfront and the local valuation cap passed, was elated and optimistic after Tuesday’s vote.
She predicted the waterfront bill would pass statewide this time around. “We’re all going to work very hard to get the word out,” she said.
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