BETHEL — New town assessor Rob Duplisea met with Bethel’s board on Thursday morning. Chairman Robert Everett, Michele Cole, Bob Blake, Neil Stanton, and Meryl Kelly were all in attendance along with Assessing Assistant Courtney McPherson. Town Manager Natalie Andrews and Select board member Frank Del Duca were in the audience at town office, as was resident, Janet Willie.

Bethel dropped personal property tax enforcement in 2008 when resident, Scott Cole was the Bethel town manager.

“We are statutorily obligated to assess personal property, just like we do real estate,” said Duplisea, explaining the two ramifications of not accessing personal property.

“The state is going to assess a certain amount in personal property… If you have millions of dollars in personal property… They look at what other towns the same size as Bethel should be assessing, they add that to a state valuation that is what determines our taxes in county and school. We’re not picking up those taxes locally, that’s the biggest problem … other than that there’s nothing the state can do to the town, they can’t mandate it. That’s how we pay for it,” he said.

The other risk is discrimination. “If you have some personal property that is being assessed and some that aren’t, we have a threshold that we set and anything above and beyond that threshold has a tax levied against that amount. Someone would be appealing a tax for discrimination and probably would have a fairly good case,” said Duplisea.

He clarified for Blake that “personal,” personal property tax is not subject to tax. “A hundred years ago your T.V.’s, living room furniture, everything was taxable. That’s been gone for years.” He said if you have a lawn mower that you use for business that would be taxed.

A 706 letter sent to businesses annually would mandate that you declare what you have for equipment. BETE (Business Equipment Exemption Program) and other programs are ways for businesses to exempt some of the tax. Duplisea said excise taxes for vehicles, business or otherwise, negate a personal property tax.

Andrews reminded the board that they took an oath to follow the statute of the constitution of the State of Maine.

“Statutes can be interpreted many ways,” said Blake.

“This is pretty cut and dried,” Andrews responded.

Michele Cole said because the board had so many other things going on she would like to see the board wait to talk about personal property tax until the first Thursday in October.

Andrews read the last line of a letter from the head of Maine Revenue Services, “It definitely opens them up to the potential for costly appeals for discriminatory treatment on constitutional grounds.

“You haven’t sent out 706As since 2008. One of my jobs is to protect the town,” said Andrews. She also said a threshold is an exemption and is illegal.

“I appreciate your zest…” said Cole.

“My passion is to do the right thing, Michele.” said Andrews.

“It’s been happening for a long time,” said Cole.

“Just because it has been happening for a long time in Bethel doesn’t mean it is the right thing,” said Andrews.

Dupilsea and Everett shot down a suggestion by Blake for a public hearing for selectmen and the public. “They can vote not to fund your assessors agent. They can’t dictate how I do my job and they certainly can’t dictate how you do your job,” said Duplisea.

Everett suggested they meet for further discussion on personal property tax on Thursday, June 29 before they commit taxes.

“We don’t have to,” said Cole

“I don’t think we are that busy,” said Everett.

“I’m looking at the other end, on the public. There is so much happening with assessing,” said Cole.

“We may have different board members after June, too” said Blake. Michele Cole and Robert Blake are both running for re-election. Meryl Kelly has not taken out papers for her two-year term, also ending in June. According to town office no one else has taken out nomination papers.

The board voted to talk again on the matter on June 29.

Other business

Duplisea explained LD-290 Tax Stabilization. “Your tax will be frozen at last year’s tax rate or lower. We capture the gap, if you will. We have to report to the state what our gap is and the state will reimburse us between 50 and 100 percent of the gap,” He said they do not know what the amount is because the State has not decided how it is going to funded yet.

The town received 159 applications. All but one were approved. That one was conditionally approved following address clarification.

Community Concepts owns Bethel Station Apartments and have asked for a full tax exemption. The board tabled the request.

Janet Willie appealed to the board because, while she still qualified, her homestead deduction was dropped from her tax bill.  Duplisea recommended the Bethel board abate her for one-year. Municipal officers can abate for two more years.

Duplisea explained, “when you get your annual tax bill, you would see that the exemption is no longer on the bill.” Willie said her mortgage company pays the tax. Duplisea said she should still be receiving a copy.

“I’m concerned because as a citizen … what’s the protocol for informing a homeowner that you are not qualifying?” asked Willie.

“There is nothing in the statute that requires the town to notify the homeowner that the homestead would be coming off,” said Duplisea.

Blake commented that many people don’t know about the homestead deduction.

Valuation updates

Duplisea said that annually they receive a letter from the state, letting them know what the state ratio can be. “It derives  mostly from the homestead exemption. You will see on this report that it says ‘developed parcel ratio: 79%.’ When the state does their annual audit they give us our state valuation which governs what we pay for school, what we pay for county.

“It also tells us what our certified ratio is. When we give exemptions: veterans, homestead, we say that homestead exemption is $25,000, what it  really means is up to 25,000. [We can get full homestead returns] when our certified ratio is 100%.

“The state wants to be sure we are playing by their rules. This refers to developed property,” he said.

Duplisea said, it is not an exact science and that based on the latest study the developed parcels are at 79% valuation.  This number is based on the sales data from June 2021 to June 2022. he said, and the lag is something every town works with.

The assessor board is allowed to take the 79% and increase it 10 points. The minimum is 70 and the maximum is 100.

If they go up higher than allowed, they may get penalized by the state.

Duplisea said it is up to the board to decide what number to choose. Last year the board factored up. He said he would like to return to the board adding more recent sales (up to April 1) into the mix.

Blake warned that the housing bubble could burst, Duplisea said it was seamless to change the ratio with the current software.

“We have been conservative in the last few years, because of the bubble,” said Everett.

A motion was made and passed to allow the assessor to make a proposal to certify up to 100% with a 10% leeway. They will talk about it again in late June.