Around 25 people attended the session at the courthouse in Dover-Foxcroft on Thursday. Held in the format of a legislative hearing, it allowed those in attendance to sign up to speak either for or against the tax cap. It also allowed speakers to simply stand to pass on information.

County Commissioner Tom Lizotte moderated the event, and started the hearing by stating what is foremost on the minds of many.

“I think everybody agrees that tax reform is due,” he said.

At question is how to accomplish that reform, and how the state got to where it is today, with many residents blaming high taxes for the poor business climate, and worrying over how they will meet their property tax bills.

Erik Stumpfel, an attorney specializing in municipal law who is against the tax cap, first spoke in an informational capacity, giving his legal opinion on what the Palesky proposal entails and what parts would stand the test of the state constitution.

The crux of the plan is a one percent cap on property assessments, meaning towns could bill residents for no more than one percent of their assessed property value. Stumpfel said that measure is constitutional, though much of the rest of the initiative, including parts that would roll back values to their 1997 level and allow for a maximum two percent increase per year, are not, he said. That opinion is in line with one from the State Supreme Court.

He also believes that bills handed to towns from School Administrative Districts could not be separated from the cap, meaning that towns would be obligated to pay for municipal, county and educational costs under the 10 mill cap.

Those speaking for the Palesky proposal cited out-of-control spending and a lack of accountability as their reasons for favoring the implementation of a tax cap.

Kevin Schwiccardi, a Dover-Foxcroft resident and a business owner, said a tax cap should be part of a “two-prong approach” that controls both taxes and spending.

He said he has seen his property value rise 43 percent between 2001-04, but has not seen a corresponding increase in services. He said once money is in the system, it will be spent, and at some point will be seen as crucial, regardless of any real need.

“If we give it to them, they will find a way to spend it,” he said.

He said there is waste throughout governmental budgets, and a tax cap is part of the way citizens can force officials to make changes in the name of efficiency.

One woman said she felt towns did not know how to budget, and that in tough times government should, like most people, find a way to get by with less. “I think the powers that be, they don’t want to do it.”

Dover-Foxcroft Town Manager Jack Clukey said rising school assessments caused, in part, by falling funding levels from the state are largely at fault for the tax situation. He said the tax cap represents flawed policy, and that spending limits and programs like the homestead exemption, which gives tax breaks to primary homes, would better target tax relief to the people who need it most.

Sophie Wilson, town manager of Brownville, also spoke against the proposal, saying the cap would leave her town with little ability to provide the basic services -- road maintenance and snowplowing, public safety -- that most people want from the community.

Rebutting a widely-used argument for the cap, Wilson said the Palesky proposal, if passed, would fail to move state legislators to act, and would instead gut the town. “Palesky doesn’t send a message to Augusta,” she said. “It shuts my doors.”

If residents are unhappy with the way municipalities are spending money, she said, they should attend town meeting and try to influence budgets in that way. “I hear “Them, them, them’,” she told the crowd. “In the town meeting form of government, them is you.”

Stumpfel, speaking against the proposal, said also that Palesky would not have the effect of pushing the Legislature to act. Augusta may step up with additional funds, he said, but once they control the budgets, they also control how they are used.

“Then Augusta decides what the level of services are in Milo,” he said.

“That is just sending the authority one level up where you don’t have as much power.”
"This content originally appeared as a copyrighted article in the Moosehead Messenger and is used here with permission."