Troubled by what they feel are inconsistencies in their recently completed property valuations, some of Raymond’s residents have planned a public meeting to discuss their concerns.
According to Jean LaBrecque of Deep Cove Road, the meeting scheduled for next Thursday, Dec. 1, will provide people with a forum to speak out about perceived inequities between properties as well as an opportunity to question valuation results. It will also give property owners a chance to become better educated on the tax abatement process – what it is and how to prepare for it – and on the value of hiring a professional appraiser.
LaBrecque, lives on Sebago Lake in the home her family has owned for the past 60 years, is fuming about her property’s new value.
“I only have 50 feet of lake frontage,” she said. “We are being taxed twice what people with 120 or 150 feet of frontage are. It’s inequitable.”
In addition to what she considers an unfair land valuation, LaBrecque is outraged at the value assigned to her lean-to woodshed. Vision Appraisal Technology, the Massachusetts firm hired by the town to conduct their revaluation, assessed the open shelter, tucked into an exterior corner of her modest home, at $2,000.
“The irony is,” LaBrecque said, “we who live on bodies of water in Maine hire out-of-state appraisers who appraise our homes so high that we will have to sell them to people from Massachusetts.”
Out of town when the revaluations were mailed, LaBrecque missed her opportunity to schedule a meeting with the appraisal firm. Although she plans to seek abatement, the higher tax amount is due now and LaBrecque believes “the fair thing would have been to hold off the higher payment amount until April.”
LaBrecque is also concerned for the many older people on fixed incomes who may be forced to sell their homes because of their increased taxes.
Her neighbor, Elizabeth Wilson, age 74, is hoping she won’t be one of them. After the valuation of her land nearly quadrupled from $222,000 to $872,000, Wilson’s taxes rose by $2,000 a year.
Recently laid off from her job, Wilson must put $750 a month from her social security benefits toward her property tax payment.
“I am bitter,” she said. “What the federal government doesn’t take, the state of Maine does. We’re being double-taxed on a lot of things.”
Wilson said she spoke to Assessor’s Agent Amanda Simpson who told her to have a professional appraisal done and to go through the abatement process. But Wilson said she “can’t afford to hire an appraiser.”
Raymond Town Manager Don Willard and Simpson want to encourage people to follow the formal appeals process.
“We’ve had 145 review requests or abatement requests,” Simpson said. “Forty are going to the selectmen next Wednesday night. The review process is in place and is working quite well. A lot of people are satisfied.”
But, according to LaBrecque, many people are not.
“Very few people felt anything was done from these meetings,” she said.
She’s hoping Thursday’s 7 p.m. meeting at the Raymond Public Safety Building will make a difference – not by holding a complaining session but by approaching the problem constructively. For more information or questions about the meeting, call 655-7501.
Jean LaBrecque, of Deep Cove Road in Raymond, stands next to her lean-to woodshed. In LaBrecque
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