Millinocket councilors to review annexation plans

MILLINOCKET – Annexation proposals the Town Council will weigh at 7 p.m. tonight promise to add millions of dollars to the town’s value, give residential town taxpayers a significant tax break by cutting the mill rate by almost 4 percent and add thousands of acres to the town.

As outlined in a 13-page summary released Wednesday by Town Manager Eugene Conlogue, who wrote it as part of a 49-page report to the Town Council, the five-option proposal also would add no more than $60,000 to town expenses.

But the options have several catches.

Not the least of them is that they would likely, and perhaps significantly, increase the local tax burden paid for land outside of present town lines by some of the town’s largest businesses and property holders, including the Katahdin Paper Co., Katahdin Timberlands, Great Lakes Hydro America, J.M. Huber Co., and Town Councilor Matthew Polstein’s company, New England Outdoor Center.

Another catch: Town residents and the state Legislature must vote to approve whatever plan the council pursues, and a vote against annexation by residents who live in unorganized territories might kill the plan.

Penobscot County government’s approval is not required, but its disapproval could weigh heavily against the plan.

And Conlogue said he doesn’t know how much state or federal funding the town would lose for schools or in general aid because of annexation, but he estimates only slight losses.

Still, Conlogue favors annexation because it gives the town something he said it sorely needs: land on which to build town businesses and homes. Since Conlogue has been town manager, at least a dozen businesses interested in moving to Millinocket were stymied by the lack of land, he said.

“It’s not always about taxes. It’s about having land available for businesses that want to come to your community,” Conlogue said Wednesday. “If we had more land, we would have additional businesses in this town today. My hope would be that this [annexation] would create some additional opportunities. We need to be on that highway to bring development to this town.”

The tax increase faced by town businesses that own land outside the town’s present boundaries would be offset by a decrease in the town’s 18.5 mill rate that annexation would cause, Conlogue said.

He estimated that Great Lakes Hydro America would face an 86 percent to 89 percent increase in taxes it pays on its land in Indian Purchase 3. It would go from paying $68,741 annually to the county to paying the town $127,549 to $129,621 annually, he said.

However, the tax on Great Lakes’ town land, $646,238, would decrease by about $22,705, leaving a net tax increase of $36,000 to $38,000, Conlogue said – and town residents would save 1 mill on their tax rates.

Annexation would cause other companies that don’t own large amounts of town land, such as Katahdin Timberlands, to pay much more in taxes, Conlogue said.

“But I don’t think the additional burden is an economic stopper to them,” he said. “It certainly does increase their cost of operation a bit, and I am not insensitive to that issue, but sometimes there’s a price to pay for progress. And here the progress would be an increase in the additional land that potentially could be available for economic and residential development.”

Huber, Gardner Chipping Mill, New England Outdoor, Three Rivers and Emery Lee and Sons came to town after the last successful annexation in 1988. That occurred on lands that now house the Chamber of Commerce east to the airport and Dolby Flowage and portions of Old Medway Road, Conlogue said.

Conlogue offers five annexation options. They include various schemes involving Township 3, Indian Purchase and Township 1, Range 8, including Hammond Ridge, an area Polstein wants to develop as a recreational resort; Lake Road to the Piscataquis County line; and part of Millinocket Lake past Powers Point.

Smith Road and Norcoss are excluded from annexation because of past residents’ opposition.

If annexation doesn’t pass, Conlogue said the debate will be beneficial.

“It gives us an idea for what could we do for future annexation, if this doesn’t go forward,” he said. “One of the values is that you do get a chance to gauge public opinion, council opinion, different scenarios that could be explored.

“Just studying and talking about this is good,” he said.