THOMASTON — “It’s like being in a boat in a bad storm. You just do the best you can,” said Town Manager Valmore Blastow of the property tax appeal filed by the town’s largest taxpayer, Dragon Products Co. The cement plant abatement, if approved, would eliminate a fifth of the town’s budget.

Thomaston is facing the same situation that Bath confronted with a large abatement for Bath Iron Works and that Bucksport is confronting with Champion International paper mill’s appeal.

The town has valued the sprawling cement plant on Route 1 at $42.1 million with a 1994 tax bill of $783,163.

The cement firm has countered with a value of $23.5 million, which would generate taxes of $437,163. — a difference of $346,064. That’s more than the cost of running city hall and the police depart- ment.

The company is negotiating the value of its property with the town board of assessors. If those negotiations are unsuccessful, the matter could end up before the state Board of Assessment Review or in superior court.

The abatement process is now stalled by the cement firm’s desire to keep its financial records from the public. Once the firm files business earning records with the town board of assessors, the argument could be made that the documents are part of the public record. Town Attorney Paul Gibbons has suggested that the firm obtain a court order to keep the documents confidential.

Dragon officials did not return phone calls Tuesday and Wednesday about the appeal.

The next scheduled board of assessor’s meeting is on April 19, during which the court protection issue will be discussed.

“Both parties want to settle this matter without the appeal process,” which could lead through the state Board of Assessment Review to superior court, according to the chairman of the town board of assessors, Carleton LaFrance. But he noted that the $18 million difference in the factory’s assessment is a “vast” problem.

In fact, Dragon has dropped its suggested assessment from $26 million to $23.5 million since the abatement process started. “They keep going in the other direction,” LaFrance said.

“My position is that they should be taxed on what the plant is really worth. If they can prove it is less, then fine,” LaFrance said. “The rest of the town is now taxed at 98 percent of real market value. If we are paying at that level, then they should,” he said.

There is no “fall back position” if the town has to abate the $346,000, according to Town Manager Blastow. When and if the abatement is ordered, the town will have to deal with it.

The town held its budget to a zero increase this year, but had to absorb about $160,000 in increased school and county budgets. There is no way a town the size of Thomaston could absorb such a figure, the manager said.

“We would probably have to finance some of it,” he said. “Once we get to that point, we will have to make some critical decisions. You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to know it would be a major impact.”

The cement plant was purchased by the Passamaquoddy Indian tribe in 1983 from the Martin Marietta Corporation for about $25 million.

It was sold by the Indian tribe in 1988 to a Spanish conglomerate CDN-USA, the current owners, for $81.3 million. The company argues that figure was artificially inflated, like many real estate prices during the late 1980’s.

“The question is what is today’s value?” LaFrance said.