JAY – More than 100 people turned out Monday to hear an update on the new values placed on residential homes and to ask town officials questions.

Many asked where they were going to get the extra money to pay their taxes on their new valuations that several said jumped 50 percent to more than 100 percent.

Townspeople recommended that Jay residents start saying “no” to budgets. Resident Marilyn Morse asked all town and school departments to cut their budgets next year.

Several people suggested that the revaluation not be implemented this year to give people time to adjust to paying more taxes because their valuations increased.

That recommendation went unanswered by selectmen.

Town officials set 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 5, at the Jay Middle School as the date to set the tax rate.

Selectmen’s Chairman Bill Harlow said that people had voted two years in a row to do a revaluation that the state requires to be done every 10 years to keep all properties valued at 100 percent.

He also said it was the voters who approved town spending and not the selectmen or school officials.

Neither selectmen or Town Manager Ruth Marden could answer what the tax rate will be this year because revaluation figures for homes and industries had not arrived yet. They are expected late this week.

Harlow said that the personal property of machines and equipment was valued in 2005 at $833.3 million and the non personal property of real estate was valued at $276.7 million.

For every $1 million spent in a town valued at $1 billion such as Jay, that means $1 in taxes for $1,000 of property valuation, Harlow said.

If the revaluation wasn’t implemented to increase residential properties value to 100 percent, Marden said, that would open the doors for industry to come in and ask for an abatement.

The certified ratio for residential property last year was 95 percent while industry was valued at 100 percent, Harlow said.

Housing values have risen dramatically, Harlow said.

Town officials share residents’ concerns, he said, with more and more people in the community living on fixed incomes, but the property values are still there.

When asked what the town was going to do with extra income generated by the new valuations, Marden said, there won’t be any more tax dollars generated.

The town will only collect what is needed to cover what voters agreed to spend in April, plus the $1 million or so for Jay’s share of county taxes, Harlow said.

The tax share may just be redistributed differently, he said.

Resident Tom White said the board does a good job.

“I think the concern is we’re being taxed to death,” White said. “My valuation went up $100,000 I didn’t get a substantial raise last year.”

White wondered where he’d get the money to pay his bill if the tax rate stays at $15.50 per $1,000 of value.

“I’m looking at a residential tax bill of $4,000. That’s one-tenth my income,” White said.

Al Landry, another resident whose property increased about 110 percent, said he compared his house to others and didn’t find the comparison fair.

“The thing is they’ve raised the taxes so high, we cannot afford it,” resident Hyla Friedman said. “I think it’s high time citizens of Jay wake up and smell the roses and do something.”

Marilyn Morse, another resident, said 43 percent of Jay’s children are living at poverty level and there are few opportunities in Jay to get a decent-paying job.

She encouraged people to go out and vote. Only about 600 of 3,500 registered voters voted at the last town meeting, she said.

“OK people, this is where you can fight back,” Morse said. “Get out and vote.”