State to review town’s property tax records

DOVER-FOXCROFT – Willimantic residents this week asked Piscataquis County commissioners to order a revaluation of the town by an outside firm.

The commissioners, however, said they can’t order that independent revaluation. Instead townspeople will have a limited property tax audit done by the state.

That audit could be completed in a month or so, a state official said Tuesday.

Concerned with the methods used for taxation in their town, about 25 Willimantic residents who have filed or plan to file abatement requests at the county level met Tuesday with commissioners. They later met with David Ledew, director of municipal services, Maine Revenue Services.

“There is no way I think the county can order a tax revaluation,” Commissioner Woodrouffe “Tony” Bartley advised residents Tuesday.

Since four abatement hearings have been held and about 20 more are expected, commissioners enlisted Ledew’s help.

The state official said Tuesday that his department will review the town’s property tax records for the past four years to determine if taxes are fair and equitable.

Willimantic’s three selectmen set values for the town and valuations are adjusted annually, according to Debbie Pettigrew, chairman of the Willimantic Board of Selectmen-Assessors.

Pettigrew advised commissioners in a letter this month that property values in Willimantic increased drastically in the last three years.

Market sales averaged 33 percent over assessed values in 2002-2003, which caused the board to raise all house values by 30 percent the next year. She noted that property sales in 2003-2004 were more than 40 percent of their assessed values. From the sales this year, the town is assessing at 101 percent, she stated in her letter.

Willimantic residents told commissioners at meetings this week and earlier this month, however, that the town’s assessing is so “sloppy” that some property owners have been charged for “phantom” buildings, others were billed for nonexistent porches, and that some properties in town have not been assessed while others have not had their values increased in a number of years.

The latter includes a 126-acre prime lakefront property valued at $156,232 since 1994 and which should be valued in the half-million dollar range, according to resident Linda Packard. In comparison, she said one lot that she and her husband, Richard, own increased 94 percent in one year and another increased by 178 percent in 2004.

In addition, residents claim that depreciation is not considered for mobile homes.

Manfred Webber, who appealed the valuation of a modified 1967 mobile home and land owned by a relative, said selectmen have the structure valued at $192,300 and the land at $6,700.

“This is more of an extraordinary case. No town is perfect, no assessor is perfect, but they are required to act in good faith with integrity,” Ledew said Tuesday.

Resident Nancy Tatko cited a number of problems with the assessing, including the lack of conformity or equality in the conditions of properties, and that assessors dramatically raised property values to keep the tax rate artificially low at $6.35 per $1,000 valuation. She also claimed that conflicting versions of property tax summary reports were given to concerned residents, county commissioners and the planning board.

Because she and her husband, John, were granted two abatements at the local level, Nancy Tatko said Pettigrew informed them in a letter that they were barred from making a further appeal to commissioners.

Pettigrew did not attend either meeting this month held by the commissioners on the abatements. Selectman Jeff Morin, who was elected to the post last summer, was the only board member represented at Tuesday’s meeting, and he was unable to answer specific questions raised by residents at the meeting.

In an interview this week, Pettigrew said this is the first year so many complaints have been aired on taxes. She said the board has always given abatements where warranted.

Pettigrew said the board this year had received more than 14 calls about value and abatements, and four abatements were granted. The rest were satisfied with the explanation she gave, she said.