Letters From Our Readers

Mary Galperin, Adele Abolafia

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR POLICY

We welcome letter submissions to The Bar Harbor Story; for details on our policy, please visit our about page and scroll down or just visit here.

The beliefs, opinions, and viewpoints expressed by the writers of letters to the editor and included here do not necessarily reflect the beliefs, opinions, and viewpoints or official policies of The Bar Harbor Story.

All the past letters to the editor can be found on the Substack site here.

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Local Option Lodging Taxes

Two recent letters were published in the Bar Harbor Story in regards to the Local Lodging Tax Bill LD746 sponsored by Gary Friedmann. One letter was written by Bo Jennings on March 16, 2025 and the other letter was written by Charles Sidman on March 23, 2025. Jennings supports the bill and Sidman does not.

I disagree with Charles. He critiques the bill stating, “While it would be great for Bar Harbor to have someone outside solve our internal problems (while not directly costing anyone else anything), it would not similarly help most Maine communities.” I argue the bill is well crafted and it CAN benefit all communities in Maine.

The three major points in the bill are listed below. You can decide for yourself.

• The lodging tax is set at two percent. Municipalities can independently elect to enact the tax, or not. It’s a “LOCAL OPTION.”

• The bill allows each municipality to apply dollars generated against local property taxes. While it is a modest tax for visitors, it can be a meaningful tax reduction for residents.

• Ten percent of the two percent tax is designated to be kept by Augusta for rural housing.

Bo Jennings, president of the Bar Harbor Chamber of Commerce, took time out of his busy schedule to speak on behalf of the Bill in Augusta. Thank you for doing that.

However, I also disagree with Bo. He stated “our problems are with Augusta, and not with each other.” I wish it was that simple, but local issues relating to property taxes are bit more insidious. Some people feel the infrastructure and services needed to support tourism puts a greater strain on our resources and requires more funding than normal residential use would. Trash services are a good example. A normal residence has three or four bags a week, compared to the trash generated by a hotel or restaurant. The thought being that residents are subsidizing businesses. We need to address such concerns; and I have faith we can.

In closing, I say let’s hope Bill LD746 is passed. It can be helpful, but will not be a miraculous cure to all of our problems.

Mary Galperin

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Support Local Options Sales Tax

Bill LD 746 (Local Option Sales Tax on Short-term Lodging) as proposed by Representative Gary Friedmann is a reasonable solution to help pay for costs associated with tourism in Bar Harbor and other budgetary expenditures. Revenue collected can be used for improvements and upgrades to infrastructure, essential services, housing, and support of community programs. Another benefit of this bill will help create much needed affordable housing options throughout Maine by giving 10% of the 2% collected tax revenue to the Maine State Housing Authority.

In response to the letter written by Charles Sidman on March 23, 2025 and published in The Bar Harbor Story, Bill LD 746 is one tool in our tool box. Bar Harbor does need to control spending and to be fiscally responsible, but why not support LD 746? It's not the end-all to our fiscal problems, but it will help the impact of increased taxes on our aging population who are on fixed incomes, lower and middle income homeowners, and renters. If passed, LD 746 is a win for Bar Harbor and other towns who choose to opt in. Let's rally around Representative Gary Friedmann and show support for Bill LD 746.

Adele Abolafia

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