Scarborough, which did a town-wide revaluation in 2001, is about to do it all over again, we learn on Page 1.
Why so soon? Because the housing market in town is so hot that assessments on the town’s books are only 70 or 75 percent of what the state estimates is the actual market value of the town.
That’s good news for homeowners, who are seeing their equity increase rapidly. And it’s not entirely bad news for taxpayers, either.
In fact, it’s probably better to do revaluations more often, rather than less. Making adjustments at small intervals means any changes are smaller. Those who see their taxes go up will not – we hope – suffer the large increases that resulted from the 2001 reval, which adjusted values for the housing market boom through the entire decade of the 1990s.
A guideline for revaluations, and one that has proved true in Scarborough and Cape Elizabeth during prior revals, is that roughly one-third of people will see their tax bills go up, one-third will see them go down and the remaining third will see their taxes stay about the same.
This can happen even if everyone’s assessed value goes up – and even as the town spends more money – so long as overall property values rise faster than town spending. (This is a key factor to pay attention to, if the long-predicted bursting of the housing bubble ever actually happens.)
A tax bill can drop if the value of an individual property climbs by a lesser rate than the town’s property as a whole.
Most people, while not truly happy to pay taxes, are willing to pay their fair share to ensure good-quality schools, police and fire protection, roads and other town-provided services. A reval offers the opportunity to refine what is meant by “fair share.”
While nearly all property values are rising, some are doing so more rapidly than others, meaning some people are paying more taxes than they should, and others are paying less than their share.
So if your home used to be worth about the same as one down the street or on the beach, and that home has gained more in value than yours, after the reval the owners of that property will pay a larger share of the town’s expenses than you. That’s only fair.
It is true that the value of the property a person owns is not an accurate measurement of a person’s ability to pay taxes on it. That is especially true for older residents, and those who have had property in the family for years.
But there are exemptions – including a proposal up for a statewide referendum this year to relieve the tax pressure on working waterfront property – that can help adjust for people who need help.
And property value is, at the moment, the best way society and governments have to spread the cost of services across the population fairly.
Having a reval is a way to ensure the cost is truly spread as fairly as possible.
Jeff Inglis, editor
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