ARUNDEL — The select board has set the mil, or tax rate, for Arundel at $16.90 per $1,000 of assessed value for this year.
If that figure sounds familiar, that is because it remains unchanged from 2021.
Town Manager Keith Trefethen told the board Aug. 22 that Arundel has gained $26.32 million in new property value in the last year, exceeding the $22 million in growth in the prior year, and the $20 million in new value two years previously.
The board voted to use $102,000 from the fund balance to achieve the tax rate. Overlay, which is an amount set that can be used in the event of property tax abatements, is $1,726.
Trefethen told the board that to increase the town’s certified ratio, currently at 81 percent, Arundel may have to hire a firm to conduct a statistical update of property values for next year. If the certified ratio was at 100 percent, the town’s tax rate would be less, said Trefethen.
According to Maine Revenue Services, a “certified ratio” means the level of municipal assessed value, expressed as a percentage of just value, as certified by a municipality’s assessor.
Arundel Tax Assessor Beth Newcombe said by telephone Aug. 24 that property owners with exemptions may notice they will be a bit less this year because of Arundel’s certified ratio.
So far this year, Arundel has approved 16 residential building permits with two pending, less than half of the number issued in 2021, when all 40 were used. The figures excludes the Arundel Cottage Preserve complex — those building permits do not count toward the 40 residential permit cap, Trefethen said in an email.
On Aug. 22, the board appointed Diana Boucher as tax collector following the departure of former tax collector Jessica McPherson.
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