Maine court upholds tax on N.H. shipyard workers

PORTLAND – Maine’s highest court gave short shrift Tuesday to appeals by three Portsmouth Naval Shipyard workers from New Hampshire who said they should not have to pay Maine income tax.

In a one-paragraph opinion, the Supreme Judicial Court unanimously denied the appeals of Mark Ayotte of Portsmouth, Norman Canwell of Rochester and Dennis LaBelle of Milton. The court took note of last year’s U.S. Supreme Court ruling on a longstanding boundary dispute between Maine and New Hampshire.

In dismissing a New Hampshire claim, the Supreme Court barred that state from changing the position it took in a 1977 consent decree agreeing that the boundary is in the middle of the Piscataqua River and that the shipyard on Seavey Island is therefore within Maine.

The opinion Tuesday upheld decisions by Maine tax officials demanding payment of taxes by Ayotte, Canwell and LaBelle and assessing penalties and interest.