Property Tax Rate Decrease Likely for 2006

Policies Proposed to Selectmen

Stiff State Valuation Increase Likely

Referendum Vote vs. Open Town Meeting

Cable TV Company Surveys Areas

Old Building Permits Located

Permit Process Relatively Brisk for '06

Property Tax Rate Decrease Likely for 2006

(Lamoine) - If all goes well, the property tax rate in Lamoine should decrease by nearly 4-percent when tax bills go out next August. The decrease comes despite an overall budget increase approved by the annual town meeting (see page 1).

Several factors go into the projected tax rate decrease, but the two major parts are a decreased property tax need for education and increased valuation.

The overall town budget for 2006/07 grew by approximately $40,000, or 1.47%. School funding from the State grew by over $95,000 or 18%. The municipal tax need is roughly $39,000, and the county tax increase was only $10, for a net property tax decrease of about $56,000!

The other factor is municipal valuation. Using a figure of $231-million for taxable value, the mill rate works out to just about 7-mills. It's likely that the valuation will be a bit higher than this conservative estimate, possibly as high as $236-million, depending on the amount of new construction picked up by the Board of Assessors. In past years the valuation has averaged about a 3% growth.

Policies Proposed to Selectmen

(Lamoine) — Lamoine's Board of Selectmen is contemplating several new policies for the town office. An audit by Maine's State Bureau of Audit last year resulted in several policy suggestions. One expected to be enthusiastically adopted is a quarterly report on excise tax collections. Treasurer Stu Marckoon told the Board that report is very easy to generate and is a good exercise to keep track of excise tax collections. After property taxes and state General Purpose Aid to Education, excise taxes are the biggest revenue source to the municipality. By tracking the amount of tax collected each quarter and comparing it to past years, the Board will have a pretty good idea if collections are where they should be. In communities that experienced fraud, excise tax is generally the target. Lamoine generates over a quarter million dollars in excise tax annually.

Another policy deals with computer security. It puts in writing what the town office staff practices—virus updates, backups, and other measures to help ensure computer data is retrievable.

A policy outlining the current practice of double checking the tax commitment has been referred to the Board of Assessors for review. The policy lays out the confirmation process for correct information on property cards and coordination with the computer generated tax bills.

A multi-faceted financial policy is also up for review. While the state suggested more staff to segregate duties, the budget does not allow for that. The financial policies proposed will help put in writing the practices taken to ensure the safety of and accuracy of accounting for town funds.

Stiff State Valuation Increase Likely

(Lamoine) — The Property Tax Division of Maine Revenue Services says the taxable property in Lamoine for 2007 is worth $228.4 million. The figure represents a 22-percent increase from the 2006 value of $187.55 million. Last year's factored revaluation played a big roll in the increased state valuation, though the state value is slightly less than the town's taxable value on the books for April 1, 2005. The state value is based an actual sales data from the previous year, so the 2007 valuation is an interpretation of the sales that took place between April 2004 and March 2005.

The increased value will have some negative impacts on town funding. One is that state education aid is likely to decrease in the 2007/08 budget year as the town's perceived wealth increases in the eyes of the state. The other will be a larger share of the County Tax bill, which all comes from property taxes. The county tax increase ill not be known until early 2007.

The good news is that the state says property values in Lamoine are once again assessed at 100% of market value. The 2006 valuation was approximately 59% of the average sales price. Because of the 100% certified ratio figure, homestead, veterans, and other exemptions for property will once again receive their full credit. When the ratio falls, only a certain amount of those exemptions are granted by law.

Referendum Vote vs. Open Town Meeting

(Lamoine) — The format for town meeting in Lamoine has remained relatively unchanged for many years. In recent years, though, some have called for having all articles voted by secret ballot referendum, including all budget articles. Figures comparing secret ballot turnout to open town meeting attendance show more people cast ballots at the town hall than attend the open meeting where articles can be discussed and amended prior to voting.

Selectmen Richard Fennelly Jr. said he would favor referendum voting on large ticket items, in excess of $25,000. Several years ago voters approved, by referendum, an article that requires open ended budget articles on the warrant that could be amended at open town meeting. Referendum budget articles would not be able to be amended, and a change to that provision would likely be needed before all budget articles could be voted on by referendum.

A few communities in Maine have adopted the budget referendum process. Most of them have voting machines to count the ballots cast on election day. With 37 articles on the 2006 town meeting warrant and a turnout of 420 voters, counting by hand would likely take at least 8-hours or possibly longer, so results would not be known for a few days. The other drawback comes if a budget article fails. That leaves funding for the next fiscal year at zero, or would require a special town meeting to come up with a new budget.

The Selectmen are interested in hearing thoughts on the format of town meeting, and what might be done to attract more people to the open town meeting. If you have thoughts on the town meeting process and how to improve it, contact the town hall.

Cable TV Company Surveys Areas

(Lamoine) — Adelphia recently surveyed three areas of town that have requested cable TV service, mainly for the availability of high speed Internet. The Seal Point Road, Walker Road and Bar Harbor Highlands Subdivision area were all mapped out by the cable company which is in the process of selling assets to Time-Warner. None of the three was found to have enough density to require cable service. A meeting with company officials to discuss system expansion was postponed until after the merger takes place.

Old Building Permits Located

(Lamoine) — It's good to clean house once in a while—the same holds true in the Town Hall Vault. In an effort to find more space for subdivision and gravel pit files, several folders full of old building permits turned up, ranging from 1974 to 1984.

Since 1993 the town has maintained a useful computer database of building permits. The “new” old permits will be entered into the database, a process that will take a while as map and lot numbers were not routinely captured on the permits.

Permit Process Relatively Brisk for ‘06

(Lamoine) — The winter weather usually keeps the number of building permits issued during the first quarter relatively low, and activity was decidedly a bit slow this year. All building permits issued are now posted on line (www.lamoine-me.gov). Additionally, thanks to a request from at least one resident, plumbing permits are also posted on line. Both are updated within a few hours from when the permits are issued.

Go to Building Permits 2006

Go to Plumbing Permits 2006

Go to Code Enforcement Officer's Page