The Presque Isle Assessing office is very pleased to have our assessment records and maps (tax cards and tax maps) re-created in a Geographic Information System and available online for all to review and utilize.
You can now access the City’s GIS offerings from any device that has internet connectivity. To do so, go to the city website by entering “city of presque isle me” in a search bar, or go directly to http://presqueislemaine.gov/. On the City’s home page is a tab labeled “assessing maps” which brings you to the GIS system. You can also go to — departments/assessing/assessing maps. This way, you will see additional general assessing information on the assessor’s page regarding our assessment process, such as the mil rate, due date, interest rate, appeal deadline and so forth. There are links to the 2015 and 2016 commitment books on this page as well.
We are giving one-hour demonstrations on the use of the system on Tuesdays at 9:30 a.m. and Thursdays at 2:30 p.m. for any interested persons. You can set up a date and time by calling my office at 760-2714 or email lcousins@presqueisleme.us. All of the valuation information utilized to assess every property in the City can be viewed on this site.
In the office: This time of the year we are very busy processing all of the ownership and mapping changes that occurred since the last April 1 and preparing to send all the Personal Property update requests to the business owners. In the nine-month period of January 1 to September 30, 2016, 95 properties were sold in Presque Isle, with a total sales price of $12,718,051. The average price per sale was $133,874.
Homeowners: Property tax relief in the form of the “Homestead Exemption” is available to every homeowner who has made Maine their primary place of residence for the 12 months prior to April 1, 2017, and owns as their primary residence, a home in Presque Isle on April 1, 2017. We must have your signed application on file prior to April 1, 2017.
If you currently have the exemption, you do not need to re-apply. The homestead amount established by the Legislature for 2017 is $20,000 for all qualified property owners (see politics below).
Veterans: Property tax relief is available to all veterans who have reached the age of 62 and served during a federally recognized war period. The veteran’s exemption remains unchanged for 2017 at $6,000. Once again, the application for this exemption, along with a copy of your DD- 214 must be filed with this office no later than April 1.
Business owners: Personal Property tax relief currently remains in effect for most business equipment placed in service after April 1, 1995. The Business Equipment Tax Reimbursement (BETR) program reimburses business owners for personal property tax paid on eligible equipment placed in service after April 1, 1995. The Business Equipment Tax Exemption (BETE) program exempts from taxation certain qualified equipment placed in service after April 1, 2007. Any business owner who pays tax on business equipment is encouraged to speak with the assessor regarding these relief programs (see politics below).
More information regarding all tax relief programs can be found at http://www.maine.gov/revenue/propertytax/sidebar/exemptions.htm
Politics: Governor LePage submitted his newest budget proposal to the Legislature on Jan. 6, 2017. Initial reviews identify three items in his proposal that would affect local property taxation here in the City as a result of changes they make to our assessing practices. Item 1 is the homestead exemption would be available only to persons age 65 and older and reduce the reimbursement rate from the state to the city. Item 2 would convert BETR qualified business personal property to BETE qualified. Item 3 would turn the authority to assess two-way telecommunication equipment to the municipalities from the state.
If approved as submitted, the homestead change would increase tax to homeowners under 65, help lower the local mil rate, decrease program costs to the state, and have no effect on city assessments.
The BETR to BETE conversion would decrease cost and workload to the state, decrease revenue, city assessment, and workload to the city, increase the mil rate, and decrease costs to business owners.
The telecommunications tax change would increase local revenue, assessment, and workload, reduce the mil rate, and reduce state revenue and workload.
As usual, this budget proposal will go through an intense legislative debate before any final decisions are made. This office takes no political position on these matters other than to provide information, but we do have concerns when younger taxpayers will see an increase of nearly $500 in property tax if the homestead is limited to folks age 65 and older.
Thank you to everyone who has supported our efforts in the past year. We appreciate all the cooperation so many property owners have given in allowing us into your properties, answering our questions, and providing us the information we need to be fair to everyone. We hope everyone uses and finds benefit in the GIS services and by all means, contact us with any questions or concerns regarding your assessment.
Lewis Cousins is Presque Isle’s assessor. He can be reached at 760-2714 or via email at lcousins@presqueisleme.us.
