There must be some person in state government who is specially hired to write in confusing double negatives. I’m pretty sure the same person who wrote the gay rights ordinance question we voted on in February where you voted “no” to mean “yes” and vice versa helped to write the new homestead exemption application.

Beware of answering like you speak on the last question. It reads, “I have not applied for homestead exemption in any other place.” I questioned several friends whom I know have only one home. All have college degrees, and they all agreed that no, they had not applied for homestead exemption anywhere else. Trouble is, the “no” answer creates a double negative, which means yes you have, and could disqualify you.

I suspect my town’s board of assessors will spend countless hours on the phone polling those people who didn’t closely analyze the statement. Would it have been so hard for the person who wrote this statement to phrase it “This the only community in which I have applied for homestead exemption.”? Stu Marckoon Lamoine