JAY – Selectmen dropped a proposal Monday to give a $1,600 property value depreciation to properties not on the town’s sewer.
“It’s not legal,” said Town Manager Ruth Marden said.
The proposal was an attempt to have those using the sewer system pay for it. The existing policy is that Jay sewer users pay $175 a year, and the rest of the cost is picked up through taxation.
There are 1,946 properties in Jay not on the town sewer and 792 properties, which equals 1,172 units, on the town sewer.
The proposal would have called for those not on town sewer to pay $25.30 less on their tax bills. Homeowners on the sewer system would have paid a total of nearly $70,000 through taxation to cover remaining costs to operate the system in addition to sewer user fees.
Marden had warned earlier this month that selectmen were opening a can of worms with the proposal. She pointed out that the Maine Supreme Judicial Court ruled that it was illegal for the city of Portland to adjust the tax system to assist a group of taxpayers.
Marden said she received legal opinions that indicated the move was illegal.
She also noted that a former selectmen told her town officials tried to do adjust the tax rate in 1980s and couldn’t do it.
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