Abbot landowners latest to feel tax pinch

ABBOT – Property-tax payers in this small Piscataquis County community are feeling the heavy hammer blows from rising valuations driven by sales of waterfront properties.

Because the town’s valuation increased from $40,850,000 in 2004 to $45,950,000 in 2005, property owners will continue to pay more for education and the operation of the county.

Selectman Jan Ronco said Thursday that nine property sales changed the valuation of Abbot (population 630) by $5.1 million. “The question is how can 1 percent of our lots change the whole town by $5.1 million?” Ronco said.

Town officials had appealed the state valuation, but that appeal was denied Monday after a hearing attended by Ronco and Selectmen John Libera, Roger Packard and former Selectman Bob Kallgren.

Ronco said town officials are using the values the state provided them for assessing, yet were told this week that those values were outdated. “We kind of have to rely on the state’s assessing book,” since the town has no professional assessor, she explained.

“The problem is we have no control of people’s spending habits,” Ronco said. “Basically, we feel like we’re subsidizing the 1 percent of the lots being bought in town.”

The highest and lowest sales in the town were eliminated from the state’s formula to determine the valuation of Abbot. These sales involved two waterfront camps, one valued at $103,000 that was sold for $215,000 and the other valued at $30,600 that was sold for $52,000, Ronco said.

“What became clear to us is the methodology used is flawed,” Ronco said. “We believe there are inequities between towns.”

And if it is inequitable, Abbot is paying more for the county and schools, she said.

Because the town is part of SAD 4, Ronco and others from Abbot tried earlier this year without success to convince school district directors to initiate a process to amend the cost-sharing formula in the district.

At that time, Ronco said, Abbot’s cost per pupil was $4,144 compared with $2,886 in Guilford (population 1,500). In fact, Abbot pays the highest per pupil cost of any SAD 4 town.

Town officials had hoped that a funding formula based on 50 percent valuation and 50 percent pupil count could be used rather than on 100 percent valuation.

The town leaders have not given up on a cost-sharing formula change, but are waiting to see what the Legislature will do for property-tax relief, according to Ronco. “We’re hopeful something good is going to come out of the frustration of the people of Maine,” she said.