The Maine Land Bank, a proposed tax reform designed to insulate family properties on islands and elsewhere from skyrocketing property valuations, originated as a result of some hard work by folks on Chebeague Island and coastal Harpswell. Enrolling one’s property in the Land Bank program would exempt it from the state constitution’s “highest and best use” requirement for property tax valuations, keeping family homes affordable by removing them from the speculative frenzy and seemingly global real estate market trends that have engulfed so many communities.
The Land Bank as currently drafted would extend its protections to the owners of seasonal property as well as year-round residents. That provision might work well on some island communities; it could prove a problem in other places. Individuals whose towns fall into both categories have made their feelings clear in these pages, repeatedly, over the past several months.
Tax breaks, be they exemptions to promote family home ownership or ways of lowering taxes on large corporations to promote economic development, usually turn out to be tax shifts. Would-be tax reformers, therefore, need take into account the likelihood that relieving one person’s tax burden will increase someone else’s.
For the last several months, Working Waterfront has provided a forum for divergent points of view, pro and con. Neither the Island Institute nor Working Waterfront have taken a position on the Maine Land Bank, and given the differences it appears to be generating, it’s unlikely we will, since there is no unified island voice on this issue.