Property taxes in Fort Fairfield are set to go up by almost five percent this year, after two years of flat taxes in the town.
The Fort Fairfield Town Council on Sept. 20 approved setting the mill rate at $25.7 per $1,000 of property value for the 2017-2018 budget year.
Town Manager Jim Risner said the increase was needed to meet the budget adopted by the council in June and to account for an increase in the school budget.
Risner attributed about two-thirds of the increase to the town’s school district budget, which increased by more than 6 percent over last year with an additional $133,000 in the local assessment.
The rest of the increase this year is devoted to building the town’s capital reserve, Risner said.
Fort Fairfield taxes are due by Feb. 1, 2018, and come with a 7 percent interest rate if not paid by March 1 — a custom that the town council briefly debated the merits of before approving the tax rate.
Town councillor John Herold said that he thinks the 7 percent interest rate is too high and possibly punitive toward homeowners with modest incomes.
The 7 percent interest rate is “really out of line with what people are paying for real estate loans these days,” Herold said, suggesting that it could be lowered to 4 or 5 percent.
“I realize that the 7 percent interest rate is designed to be a motivator to get people to pay their taxes. At the same time, it can make it more difficult to get people to pay their taxes, especially after the rate builds up a little bit.”
Council chair Jason Barnes said he’d “be reluctant to change” the rate but open to considering it.
“We don’t want be in a position in there with mortgage rates … because you lose the incentives to get those taxes paid. And it’s critical for the town to receive those on a timely basis.”
Councillor Mitch Butler added that local taxpayers also can join the Fort Fairfield Tax Club, a group that helps people pay their taxes over the course of 12 months.
In other Fort Fairfield news, the council authorized town code enforcement officer Tony Levesque to take the next step in the process of addressing a land use nuisance complaint with a home on Riverside Avenue.
At Fort Fairfield’s Aug. 16 council meeting, three residents from Riverside Avenue voiced concerns about the home and tenants at 107 Riverside Drive. The neighboring residents said that the home, which is owned by a nonresident and rented, is impacting their quality of life with excessive trash in the yard, loud generators, and other issues.
Levesque told the council that with their authorization he and a town lawyer will be seeking legal action in District Court to remedy the situation. He said he was not able to share more information due to the matter being in the midst of adjudication.
