The Good Idea Fairy has visited Augusta this year, leaving behind L.D. 1337. This proposed piece of legislation would punish owners of seasonal residential property in Maine with a tax of 0.5 percent of assessed value.
While the intention nobly is for the proceeds to go to fund affordable housing for Mainers (and Maine does have a shortage of affordable rental housing), this is classic taxation without representation that will have the perverse effect of discouraging those of us who cherish the months that we are able to reside up here while maintaining another residence elsewhere.
I propose instead that Maine consider higher taxes or restrictions on short-term rentals (Airbnb, VRBO) that are taking long-term rentals off the market in the midcoast, rather than those of us who live seasonally in our properties, and even come back for Christmas.
After all, we inject a lot more into the local economy than the state might get after laying out the overhead costs of figuring out who this law might apply to. Not to mention the cost that will come with likely litigation. Send the tax-and-spend Good Idea Fairy packing, please!
Larry Butler
Thomaston and Reston, Va.
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