LEWISTON – City leaders won’t solve property tax issues overnight, they agreed Tuesday.
Councilors swapped ideas aimed at giving residential homeowners a break during a free ranging workshop discussion Tuesday night. No closer to a solution, they called it a night at about 10:30 and promised to take up the topic again in July.
“One thing to remember is that we need to agree on what we suggest,” City Administrator Jim Bennett said. “If we can’t agree, we won’t get anywhere.”
Councilors decided to scrap their property revaluation last month, promising to come up with ideas to reform taxes and get the burden off residential property owners.
They hope to bring Lewiston’s legislative delegates and Gov. John Baldacci, as well as opposing candidates for their seats, to Lewiston for a fall tax reform debate.
Bennett brought three ideas to the table Tuesday, but councilors had ideas of their own. They ranged from boosting taxes on nonprofits to letting cities like Lewiston charge an income tax.
But all agreed that the state government is the biggest thing standing in their way.
Bennett’s three plans called for changes to the tax rules that wouldn’t any require money from the state.
“If you think getting them to change taxes will be hard, imagine getting any money out them,” he said.
Bennett suggested letting property taxes accrue for some low income elderly homeowners. Those taxes would be paid when the house is sold, similar to a reverse mortgage. That approach had its fans, but most councilors didn’t like it.
“I don’t think it solves the ultimate problem, which is how high the taxes are,” Councilor Normand Rousseau said.
Other approaches – phasing in property value increases for residential property owners and establishing a city homestead exemption – could require changes to the state constitution. Those changes wouldn’t help taxpayers until 2010 at the earliest, Bennett said.
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