By Scott Taylor,Staff Writer

AUBURN – A big powwow on Auburn’s taxes and property values will be held in Central Maine Community College’s gym Monday night.

The New Auburn hairdresser heading up a group of citizens intent on reviewing city taxes and property values said her group will meet with Mayor Normand Guay today to discuss the agenda for Monday’s meeting.

“The most important thing now is for the citizens to get up to speed on what’s going on,” Deana Chapman said.

The group formed in response to citywide property revaluation figures released earlier this month, which threaten to double or triple property taxes for many homeowners.

The group’s first meeting on Monday night brought out several hundred angry Auburn taxpayers. The people crammed the block surrounding American Legion Post 153 on South Main Street in New Auburn to protest the revaluation and join the tax-reform effort.

Monday’s City Council meeting will be televised on Great Falls TV, said City Manager Pat Finnigan. She didn’t know whether the broadcast would be live, however.

Clarifications

Meanwhile, Auburn officials began trying to dispel myths surrounding the property valuation. Guay and a contingent of Auburn officials met with a Sun Journal editorial board Thursday afternoon to talk about the revaluation.

The city is required by state law to update its property values. The recent citywide appraisal is the first done in 16 years. Finnigan said the city began working on it in 2001, after residential values began to increase.

“Before that, we didn’t have anything to revalue,” she said. Property values in Auburn remained mostly stagnant through the 1990s and began increasing only recently.

The city’s total valuation will be set by April 1, 2006. The city’s calculations currently don’t include personal business property or new business construction. Both should reduce tax bills for homeowners when they are calculated in April, Finnigan said.

And City Councilor Kelly Matzen said he’s not sure whether the city was right to include a possible $22 tax rate in the letter to property owners. That rate would mean significant tax payment increases for most homeowners, almost across the board.

“We did want people to realize this would change what they pay for taxes,” Matzen said. “But it certainly did get people engaged in the process.”

Reform support

Three other city councilors have pledged their support for the new tax reform group. Councilors Bob Mennealy, Donna Lyons Rowell and Belinda Gerry issued a joint statement offering their help to the group.

“The old mindset that the people elected us to do their business and we know what’s best for them must be altered,” they said in statement. “We need more input from our constituents, friends and neighbors and allow them to take a more active part in Auburn’s destiny.”

Copy the Story Link