Gov. Paul LePage plans to introduce a bill in the House of Representatives on Tuesday that would remove the property tax exemption for land held for conservation or public access by 2017. With less than a month to go before the legislative session’s scheduled end and this being a significant policy change, the bill probably won’t go far in 2016.
But it’ll touch off another conflict between LePage and conservation advocates that he battled for much of the past year when he held up $11.5 million in bonds for the Land for Maine’s Future program.
However, LePage said he’d issue $5 million of them in December and supported a bill to revive the other $6.5 million in January.
Even then, he has talked tough on conservation bonds, saying they drive up property taxes. A 2014 Maine Supreme Judicial Court ruling held that land trusts using preserves for charitable purposes don’t have to pay property taxes, and LePage is looking to reverse the law after that decision.
The proposed change also intersects with LePage’s 2015 budget proposal, in which he advocated for taxing nonprofits to offset cuts to revenue sharing. There was little support in the Legislature for that plan, and it was rejected. This plan will probably meet the same fate.
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