POLAND – Town officials are taking a different approach than most when it comes to studying the potential impact of a property tax cap.

Instead of looking at lost revenue and listing services that might be cut, Poland’s selectmen want to know what a property owner’s tax bill would look like. Then they want to see which town services would become privatized or self-sufficient based on user fees.

“First we need to answer the question of what the impact and savings would be,” said Selectman Steve Robinson during a workshop session of selectmen and School Committee members Wednesday. “We can’t individualize the savings because we don’t know what people will choose.”

School Committee member Norm Davis supported the idea of drafting an a la carte menu of town and school services with anticipated fees attached.

Officials are gathering information to present to Poland voters before the November election. A referendum, initiated by Topsham resident Carol Palesky, would limit property taxes to 1 percent of assessed value if approved by voters statewide.

Town and school officials plan to disseminate their information by mid-October and tentatively have scheduled a question-and-answer forum for Oct. 27.

“I like the idea of a menu,” Davis said. “People can go down the list and compare the tax savings versus the anticipated fees.”

While municipal employees continue to extract details for shifting services from tax to fee financing, some information about property values already is known.

For example, the average home and lot in Poland is assessed at $103,419, according to data kept by the town’s code enforcement officer. Property assessed at that average amount would yield $1,965 in property taxes at the town’s current 1.9 percent tax rate.

However, the town’s total property assessments are only at 85 percent of today’s fair market value.

The town last revalued property in 1994 and would immediately revalue property to reach the 100 percent level if the tax cap passed, Town Manager Richard Chick said.

“I could see us going through revaluation every year if this thing passes,” said Chick. “That would not work to the advantage of the higher priced property like those with shorefront.”

If all of Poland’s property were revalued to 100 percent, the town would receive $4.8 million in property taxes instead of this year’s $4.1 million, according to a spreadsheet provided by Chick.

The town could then lower its tax rate to 1.588 percent, or $15.88 per $1,000 of assessed property value, to collect the same amount of revenue, Chick said.

That average piece of property would then be valued at $121,670 and taxed at $1,932.

The referendum also allows towns to add existing debt on top of the tax cap. The debt allowance for Poland would add another $2.13 per $1,000 to the tax rate, based on the town’s annual locally funded debt obligation of about $1 million.

For a total assessment of $12.13 per $1,000, the average Poland property owner would see a tax bill of $1,476.

The tax cap would result in a savings of $456 for that particular property owner, and a $1.8 million decrease in total town revenue.

However, property values in Poland run a wide gamut depending on location, said Art Dunlap, the town’s code enforcement officer. The increase in full market value also will see huge discrepancies, he said.

“I’ve seen shorefront property increase in value by 50 percent or even double in the last few years,” Dunlap said. “But a house on Poland Corner Road, say, might only increase by 10 percent.”

Once property valuations have increased 56.6 percent, the town tax base would reach the break-even point under the Palesky tax cap, according to Dunlap’s calculations. Any increase in total valuation beyond that would actually result in higher taxes, even if the referendum passes.

In addition, local residents may face paying out-of-pocket for services such as snow-plowing or trash disposal, Dunlap said.

“If people are willing to adjust their expectations, that’s fine,” Chick said. “It’s all going to depend on how the selectmen package this. But we have a perfectly elegant tool for dealing with all of this: It’s called town meeting.”