The envelope, please
After 18 months of number-crunching by town hall employees, Windham property owners will begin receiving updated values for their homes in the mail this week. These assessments, certainly scary to some homeowners in our booming area, can very much impact the financial lives of property owners. And if other towns’ recent revaluation experience is any indication, homeowners aren’t the only ones who will feel an impact. It’s also going to be a busy summer for the town’s tax assessor and his employees.
The new values will either cause heart attacks or light-heartedness for homeowners throughout town; shock for those who see their tax bills double and happiness for those who see their taxes change little or reduce.
As we wait to see who’s in what category, it’s the calm before the storm for town employees. Perhaps this is a good time to stock up on Excedrin?
Seriously though, it’s important that everyone receiving their new assessment understands exactly what it entails and what their options are. The town is obliged by state law to perform periodic updates to residential and commercial property in town. Real estate prices have boomed, especially on the water, and Windham has to make sure its books stay up to date.
Conventional wisdom says that as a result of the new values, a third of Windham property owners will see tax increases, a third will see decreases and a third will see no change. The numbers are relative. Your bottom line depends on how much your value changes relative to the average Windham property.
But homeowners, while they have little control over the real estate market, still have a measure of control over their tax bills, but only if their home has been assessed incorrectly. It’s not unheard of that towns will incorrectly evaluate a home or property. People make mistakes, and so can a municipal government. If you suspect an error, it’s your right to request a meeting with the tax assessor to make sure your property is taxed correctly.
In Raymond, citizens made repeated requests with the assessor’s agent and eventually the appraising firm that determined the values. It was their right to be heard, and, in some cases, individuals were correct and assessments were changed accordingly.
But these mistakes are few and far between. Most often, however, town employees sing a familiar refrain when homeowner complaints are voiced regarding values. Surely taxpayers’ cries of “Outrageous!” and “There’s no way that can be right,” as well as other less-family friendly phrases, have penetrated the ears of assessing office staffers. It’s at those times, we’re sure, that the Excedrin comes in handy for all involved.
Red lobster, red lobstermen
Whole Foods Market is pretty bold to be coming to Maine and picking a fight with lobstermen and lobster lovers in a state known almost solely for that most delectable of sea creatures, the luscious Maine lobster.
Whole Foods has stopped stocking fresh lobsters because company officials believe it’s somehow cruel to keep lobsters in holding tanks prior to sale. The company will instead sell frozen lobster. Is freezing a lobster somehow more humane than cooking it? That’s the million dollar question. Maybe we can get a lobster to comment on this?
Because of the store’s policy change, customers will be spared the horrific scene of death by boiling. Instead they will only have to witness lobsters frozen in state. And for some odd reason, Whole Foods and people who think like they do, feel this is somewhat more humane than keeping the lobster in a confined holding tank. What they won’t think about, however, is the long commercized journey their Whole Foods’ lobster had to make from the lobster trap to the freezer. And they won’t think about how the little lobsters are cooked and frozen by Whole Foods’ suppliers. The lobsters’ last moments are surely shocking, even more so than a supermarket’s holding tank and a nice lobster cookpot on a resident’s stove.
Don’t be fooled. Whole Foods Market is simply kowtowing to its environmentally over-conscious customer base. It’s just a ploy to gain a market edge. Their plan to appear environmentally sensitive is nothing other than an attempt to get more dollars into their own bank’s holding tanks.
It’s just a shame the good old Maine lobsterman now has to cope with this new bias. Let’s hope the average Mainer, and more importantly average Americans who buy our lobsters by the ton, sees through Whole Food’s change of heart.
Send questions/comments to the editors.
