Southwest Harbor Assessor Explains Town's Revaluation
Charlotte Gill Appointed to Planning Board, Working Waterfront Discussed, Police Chief Asks for Sgt. Not Lt.
SOUTHWEST HARBOR—It isn’t the easiest of topics, but at the Southwest Harbor Select Board meeting this week, Southwest Harbor Assessor Matt Caldwell calmly explained just how and why property values had to be reassessed in Southwest Harbor.
It comes down to the state and its rules. In order to receive state money, the town’s properties have to be within 70 to 110% of the fair market worth. In order to receive certain state funding, school money, homestead exemption reimbursement, BETE reimbursement, and other funds, the town’s assessments must be within the state valuation percentage.
When the market value on property increases, the sale ratio changes. This can make the town move out of that range.
The last revaluation in Southwest Harbor was in 2007. In 2010, the town made a market adjustment downward. This happened again in 2012. Since then, the valuations have remained the same. If the town hadn’t reassessed, it would have been closer to 59%.
“That is what brought us to the point of having to do a re-val,” Caldwell said.
In some towns, a home’s assessed value has increased by 60 percent. If a town’s mil rate stays the same, that increases the property owner’s tax bill. If the town lowers the mil rate to help deal with the increased value, that property tax may not go up. However, in most towns, municipal costs have increased, school costs have increased, and the county and high school budgets have increased.
Currently, Maine has the highest property tax burden in the country. Approximately 4.9 percent of personal income is used for property taxes.
Caldwell said there’d been 151 property sales in three years. Of those, 14 were waterfront and 12 were commercial sales. There was a handful of condominium sales and the rest were residential. They looked at the current cost per square foot and then adjusted to current market conditions. That adjustment brought them toward the $220 per square foot mark.
From now on, he said, the town will look at all the sales every three years and work on sales analysis on a more timed basis.
He said that the assessed values on the waterfront didn’t see a large shift, whereas properties in neighborhoods like on the Salem Towne Road may have.
Undeveloped lots were already pretty high, he said, so those didn’t see the big increases that the developed lots did.
Vice Chair Natasha Johnson asked what the recommended length of time would be to do reassessments to make sure that taxpayers didn’t have such a big jump or change in their tax bills.
The general rule of thumb was ten years, Caldwell said. In the last three or four years, there have been big steps in the market. So, when that happens, he suggested doing the revaluation every four years instead and revisit every property’s assessed value.
“So (that) we don’t have these big sticker shock changes from one year to another,” Caldwell said.
As of this spring, median sales prices in Maine had jumped 12.59 percent from 2022 to a median sales price of $380,000.
“This has happened across the entire state,” Caldwell said.
“The mill rate is a dollar per thousand of value that we need to collect to fulfill the town budget,” Caldwell said. It was 9.02.
“To go from 9.02 to an 8.02, we’d need somewhere around a million dollars,” in cuts, Caldwell said.
GILL APPOINTED TO PLANNING BOARD
The Selectboard appointed Charlotte Gill to the town’s Planning Board.
“The town is really a big part of me, and I love it here,” Gill said.
Only one other person indicated an interest, but were unable to commit. Gill’s term runs until June 30, 2028.
WHAT TO DO ABOUT THE WORKING WATERFRONT
A local property owner, Sheryl Harper explained Tuesday night that she can receive up to $400,000 in a matching grant from FEMA/MEMA to repair the commercial waterfront property at 126 Clark Point Road, which had been heavily damaged in the storms that smashed against the Maine coast last winter.
Selectboard Chair Carolyn Ball led a discussion about whether or not this presented an opportunity for the town and its limited working waterfront. The wharf had been a restaurant, MDI Lobster, since 2020. That business closed at the end of 2023.
Possibilities include putting the property into a permanent program so that it would permanently stay a working waterfront property through Harper’s ownership or the town’s ownership.
Harper told the Selectboard that she plans on redoing the dock and likely bringing back its use. She is unsure if there will be a building on it.
“I’m just here to listen if there is any people who are interested,” she said. “Now is a good time” to talk to the town about the potential reconstruction and plans.
During the meeting, Harbor Commission member John Stanley and Chair Nicholas Madeira suggested that the town should focus on its current waterfront, which are the two docks in town and one in Manset. They also said they preferred the property stay commercial and generate tax income. Harbor Commission member Anne Napier said she’d like to preserve the property. Some board members wanted more discussion with the commission. The commission members had not learned of the money until that night, one said.
Board member James Vallette said there is such a shortage of working waterfront property and that the amount of that sort of property available is still decreasing. He said he’d like to hear more from the town’s fishing community about the site and the needs.
Johnson agreed that there is a limited amount of properties available to be used as working waterfront, but was worried about the dollar signs that might be associated with the wharf.
In the past, she said, the town has had possibilities to purchase working waterfront properties, and it did not do so to its detriment. The town could support the harbor more than it currently does in a lot of different ways, she said. “The location is great for our working waterfront.”
Land for Maine’s Future could be a partner, Ball said.
POLICE CHIEF WANTS A SERGEANT NOT A LIEUTENANT
In the police department’s internal organization structure update, Chief Hall said he did an analysis of the department earlier in the Spring and asked Ryan Blakeney, who has been on the job approximately one year and is the longest serving of Hall’s officers, to do one as well.
Afterward, there was a departmental meeting where they discussed where they want to be headed in five years and in ten years. One of the threats that they identified was retention.
“I decided to take that threat and make it into an opportunity,” Hall said.
He suggested take the lieutenant’s position, put that rank on hold, and create a sergeant’s position instead and change the responsibilities for that position as well.
“In doing that, what I hope to be able to do is create some vision for the guys and some opportunity in the future,” Hall said.
Eventually, they could bring the lieutenant position back and then create advancement opportunity for the current staff, he reasoned. Officers currently didn’t have ways to advance.
“That has never been an opportunity here,” he said.
Selectboard member Chapin McFarland asked if the town could just advertise for a lieutenant.
Hall said historically that creates a negative atmosphere within the department. He said he was looking to avoid that. He also said it is easier to train a sergeant.
Lieutenant Franklin Burke resigned this summer and is now employed by the Ellsworth Police Department. He’d been at the Southwest Harbor Department for almost ten years. There are three patrol officers currently: Blakeney, James Kamorski, and Brad Russell. One is currently at the Criminal Justice Academy. Another will attend the academy in a few months. This July the department also started covering neighboring Tremont.
TRANSFER STATION’S TRASH AND TREASURES DONATIONS
The board approved the SWH Transfer Station’s Trash & Treasures donations to split between the Harbor House Heating Oil Fund, the Harbor House Weekend Backpack Fund, the SWH/Tremont Ambulance Service, the SWH Public Library, Common Good Soup Kitchen, and the Westside Food Pantry. There is approximately $600, and there will be a $100 to each organization.
LICENSE AND PERMIT RENEWALS
The town also approved a liquor license renewal for Red Sky, located at 14 Clark Point Rd., SWH for an On- Premises Beer, Wine, and Spirits liquor license renewal.
Similarly, it approved a special amusement permit renewal for the same establishment.
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How is property tax burden measured. Looks like it is based on average income? I can say with a house in Maryland and one in Maine that have very similar assessments, my property taxes in MD are triple what they are in Maine.