The state legislative tax committee will hear public comment Tuesday on a proposed amendment that could help some Mainers keep properties threatened by double-digit tax increases.
People in Maine’s unorganized territory, which runs from parts of Aroostook County to the New Hampshire border, were threatened earlier this year with a surge in taxes on long-held generational lands and camps.
Keith Smith of Harfords Point faced a 2025 tax bill up 60% over the previous year, due mostly to soaring property revaluations. Smith’s modest Moosehead Lake home that he built alongside his wife, Valorie Smith Starbird, for their retirement is now valued at close to $1 million.
“We basically went from a valuation — for two properties under 2 acres — of $350,000 to almost $950,000,” he said when he first got his revaluation in May.
Landowners living in real estate hotspots along Moosehead Lake and Sugarloaf ski mountain were some of the hardest hit when homes and family camps, some with no electricity or running water, were valued at $1 million or more.
Sponsored by Maine Sen. Joseph Martin, R-Oxford, the proposed amendment to LD 382, “An Act to Provide Fair and Predictable Property Taxation for Landowners in the Unorganized Territory,” offers relief for property owners facing uncertain futures.
“The bill reverts our valuation back to 2024 which is a fair step since it was in 2020 when the Maine Revenue Service increased our valuation by 40 to 50%,” Kat Taylor of Argyle Township said Friday. “They did it again last year for a total of 100% increase on property value within 5 years.”
Taylor, who is retired and lives in her family home on a fixed income, said even a slight increase makes it hard to make ends meet. Her modest property’s value increased 40% in 2020, while her brother’s went up 50%, she said. And in 2025 her valuation rose $61,240 from $165,420 to $226,660.
During a November meeting in Rockwood, hosted by Sen. Elizabeth Caruso, R-Caratunk, one man shared the story of a home his grandmother purchased for $90,000, with taxes holding stable over the years at $1,200. But now, with recent changes, the home is valued at $800,000 and taxes are close to $9,000 a year, he said.
“This isn’t just crunching numbers. These are real people who are suffering and some are taking out loans to pay taxes,” said Caruso, who thinks state law needs to be changed to give them some relief.
According to the proposed amendment, starting on April 1, the valuation of all real and personal property in the unorganized territory will remain at or revert to the valuation for that property as of April 1, 2024 until the state tax assessor conducts a revaluation of all such property once every 10 years beginning with the 2030 tax year.
The amendment provides that for the purposes of the annual Unorganized Territory Educational and Services Tax levy, the State Tax Assessor may not establish a mill rate that represents an increase, when compared to the same mill rate established for the prior tax year, of more than the percentage increase in the federal Social Security “cost-of-living adjustment” for the current tax year.
Taylor said she would like to see the bill amended to pertain to only Homeowner Exemption properties and not include investment groups, seasonal and commercial owners.
“Otherwise we will see a takeover of UT property by entities looking to flip property using the low tax benefits to solicit buyers and pad their profits,” she said. “The less profitable the land the better the chance property [remains affordable] for residents of Maine wishing to buy local.”
