“Only the little people pay taxes.” Leona Helmsley
Something has happened in Maine recently that makes me wonder why some municipal and state officials in this state aren’t in jail. I know that when people break the law that imprisonment is legal punishment. It appears to me when our appointed and elected officials break the law then the rules are changed.
The leaders of the city of Lewiston recently sent out new evaluations of property. Once the citizens realized that their property taxes were going to skyrocket out of sight, city officials did an about-face and cancelled the reassessments. These officials did state that jail time might be inevitable because they were, in fact, breaking the law by canceling the reassessments. I personally believe that they knew they weren’t going to jail because the leaders in Portland did the same thing a few years ago and got away with it.
Surprisingly to some, but not to me, state officials with the Maine Revenue Services office stated that Lewiston could overlook the law for this year and cancel the reassessments. Now that leads me to believe that someone is overlooking and thus breaking the law here. Lo and behold, the city of Auburn, where there was huge tax revolt when citizens received their new property tax bills, has now decided that they will drop their new reassessments, too.
Are the reasons for these communities dropping their reevaluations really because officials feel that Maine’s property tax system is outdated and unfair? Maine’s Constitutional statutes are clear how we must be taxed fairly and that applies to all. I would have to believe that since personal property values rose faster on the business property in Lewiston that business owners could sue the city of Lewiston for unfair tax practices. Officials have stated that this re-evaluation will have to come to be next year which leads me to an interesting conclusion.
I have to believe that there is another force to be dealt with here. I mentioned the city of Portland because the reason the city delayed the reassessments was not because thousands of citizens of that city complained. They cancelled because of the Property Tax Cap proposal and wanted themselves to appear that they were concerned over property taxes rising faster than would people could afford to pay. Of course after November of that year we know what happened.
This year there is another citizens initiative that state and local officials are concerned with and that is the Taxpayer Bill of Rights, which more than likely will not be passed by Maine’s Legislature. It will then appear on the November ballet as a referendum question. I state that this is the reason municipal officials, with help from Maine Revenue Services, are dropping reassessments. I predict that this will happen in other cities and towns as well. Don’t upset the voters in Maine before November with TABOR on the ballot. Remember that TABOR puts the power with the people.
The Town of Windham is presently being reassessed. It will be interesting to watch what the property bills are and the reaction of citizens.
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