Brunswick will maintain tax fee after reassessment backlash
After backlash from the neighborhood, Brunswick city councilors voted to delay the 2023 property tax evaluation indefinitely, that means the house values used to calculate taxes will stay the identical as final yr.
The transfer on Thursday adopted a heated assembly earlier this month at which members of the neighborhood spoke to the council concerning the sudden improve in property taxes they had been dealing with on account of new property assessments primarily based on an actual property market that’s slowing down after main home-value spikes earlier within the pandemic.
Beneath the adjustments, the quantity of taxes collected would have remained just about flat at $58 million. Nonetheless, the quantities would have modified for a lot of owners. Some complained that their payments had been poised to double and even rise additional, whereas others would have seen their taxes lower.
The council voted to make use of the 2022 evaluation at Thursday’s particular assembly, authorizing the assessor to right errors made within the earlier revaluation in 2017 and letting the city alter for any new building or property adjustments for the reason that 2022 evaluation.
“When you imagine the revaluation course of was flawed, we’re going to have a course of all through the following yr so that you can give enter about that,” mentioned James Mason, the council chair.
The tax fallout stems from main adjustments in particular person house values for the reason that starting of the pandemic. Values in Maine rose 60 p.c from the start of 2020 to July 2023, in line with Zillow information. Positive factors have slowed to 4.2 p.c between this yr and final yr, whereas values in Brunswick had been $83,000 above the state common.
If the tax evaluation for 2023 had gone via, a number of owners in Brunswick mentioned on the Aug. 7 assembly that they might now not have the ability to afford to reside in Brunswick. After a presentation from the tax assessor on why the revaluation was executed, residents referred to as for extra transparency with the council and a reconsideration of the tax evaluation, which is why this particular assembly was referred to as.
