Aroostook County Commissioners denied a Caribou property owner’s tax abatement appeal on Wednesday during their regular meeting in Houlton.
For the past three years, Dana Cassidy, who owns multiple properties in the County, has been trying to get the value of his 63 Sweden Street, Caribou property reduced from $1,383,000 to $150,000. Cassidy said that the city used different assessment factors from other city properties and that he was unjustly discriminated against when they were assessing his property.
In 2022, the Caribou Board of Assessors denied Cassidy’s request claiming he did not prove that he was discriminated against. He appealed that decision to the County Commissioners who initially said they did not have jurisdiction to do so.
The Maine Supreme Judicial Court ruled in November that the commissioners erred and they were required to hear Cassidy’s appeal.
When Cassidy purchased the over 26,000-square-foot, two-story building in 2020 for $50,000, he had hoped to secure a developer for the space. At the time he envisioned using the upstairs for residential apartments and the downstairs for office space. But unforeseen problems with mold from a faulty sprinkler system and higher than expected taxes have kept potential buyers away and the building remains vacant.
On Wednesday, Cassidy said that he would like to hire a certified appraiser in Bangor to do the assessment. If the assessed value comes in from a certified appraiser no one can contest that except for another certified appraiser, Cassidy said.
But according to the commissioners, since there was already a hearing on the 2021 tax assessment on his property, they cannot accept new evidence.
“That’s the only opportunity that you have to provide information for that appeal hearing,” County Administrator Ryan Pelletier explained to Cassidy. “In order for them to take in new information you would have to open up a whole new hearing and you would be beyond your window of time allowed under the law.”
Pelletier said that in the 2021 tax case, the only recourse is to appeal Wednesday’s denial to the Aroostook County Superior Court.
“What I am trying to do is stop it,” Cassidy said during Wednesday’s meeting. “It’s bleeding money.”
The commissioners did not see any discrimination in Cassidy’s appraisal.
“I looked at all the information and we had a two and a half hour hearing on July 8 and I didn’t see anything that would indicate that the assessment is wrong,” said Commissioner Norman Fournier of Caribou. “I believe, based on the information I have from the hearing, the city followed the same criteria for Mr. Cassidy as it did for other properties. And that’s the reason I will vote to deny the abatement.”
