The Longview – Does anyone remember Nero?

The Maine coast is burning. Given the long wet summer, this may seem surprising, but we’re dealing with a peat fire, now burning mostly underground, although it will shortly break out in the open. When it does in the coming months we will all see if the resulting flames can be contained and what gets destroyed in the process. I am speaking metaphorically about the slow burn of relentlessly rising property taxes and the lack of any leadership whatever from Augusta toward reform.

A year and a half ago, Chebeague Islanders led a charge on Augusta after the town of Cumberland (of which Chebeague is part) went through a shocking revaluation. The rise in waterfront valuations alarmed the community with the prospect that the island’s traditional culture, finely balanced between year round and summer interests, would be irretrievably tilted toward an island of upscale property owners. Put simply, islanders and their working waterfront allies fear the extinction of their traditional culture that has disappeared in so many other recreationally desirable places as people who can afford the increasingly astronomical asking (and getting) prices for waterfront property quietly but quickly replace those who cannot.

Chebeague islanders, it turned out, were not alone as many other communities in southern Maine felt threatened by the changes in their communities as prices get bid up and up and up with no end in sight. Bills were drafted and introduced, a blue ribbon panel was established by the Governor, and great volumes of ink were spilled in newspaper columns advocating for reform. But in the end, after all the sound and fury, nothing happened.

Perhaps it should not surprise us that a governor and lawmakers who cannot even agree on a modest package of bond proposals would fail to produce meaningful legislation toward reforming the State’s crushing reliance on local property taxes. It’s as if our leaders were waiting for the perfect proposal, the mythical silver bullet to appear, rather than to advance incrementally. Failing either comprehensive or incremental reform, they simply went home and then stayed home, out to lunch, so to speak.

In two months time, Maine voters will have an opportunity to vote on a quick fix referendum that would, if approved, cap property taxes at one percent of valuations. Where this simple approach has been tried elsewhere – California and Massachusetts, for instance – the wrenching readjustments have caused many to ask if the cure weren’t worse than the disease. Here in Maine, many town managers, city councilors and select people have wrung their hands over what a “yes” vote on this question would mean for various projects and budget items. But if you’re faced with selling your home and everything you hold dear, the immediate relief may outweigh any concern over long-term consequences.

This quick-fix referendum comes courtesy of Carol Palesky, who was convicted of fraud in an earlier tax relief campaign. Maine is still a small enough place for voters to know who is behind a referendum question and to vote accordingly. So I used to think that Palesky’s proposition didn’t have a snowball’s chance of succeeding. But then it’s been a very cool summer, and a lot more towns have been revalued – along midcoast and downeast Maine – where similar passions have been stirred.

I also used to think that the governor and lawmakers would never let Palesky’s proposition go to voters for an up or down vote without some alternative. It makes me wonder whether anyone in Augusta remembers Nero…