To the editor:
Caribou is quickly becoming a nice place to visit, where fewer and fewer people can afford to live. Energy costs are high and the winters are long and cold. Even with the recent drop in the price of fuel oil, it still remains very expensive to heat our homes. But for many rural residents the biggest expenses, and the ones we have very little control over, are the real estate and personal property taxes that are being levied upon us.
In recent years these taxes have grown at an alarming rate! In fact, they have grown much faster than personal incomes and they have far outpaced the cost of living index and the rate of inflation.
The American dream of home ownership is under attack in rural Caribou and the enemy is among us. We have relinquished control of our local government to the chosen few and we have allowed them to tax us at a level never before seen in the history of Caribou.
We are on the fast track to becoming a poorer Caribou. The real estate market is a mess. Some homes, with high assessments, have been for sale on the real estate market for over a year with no hope of selling anytime soon. Other homes languish on the market because there just aren’t any buyers for them. Our population is down significantly and the per capita tax burden has become oppressive.
So, what can be done about it? The Caribou Secession Committee was born of the belief that taxes need not be this high and that the City Council/City Manager form of government is directly responsible for the current situation. We also believe that our rural community has been particularly hard hit by the tax policies of the Council which have resulted in a disproportionate tax burden for rural taxpayers. Our movement to secede and re-establish the Town of Lyndon, is about rural residents fighting and struggling to survive, in an environment where we have become the victims of institutional discrimination.
The Committee understands that citizen supervision of our local government is a necessary and active pursuit that requires constant vigilance, which is precisely why we have begun the secession movement. Few Caribou citizens realize that when Caribou became a city, they gave up their rights to have any meaningful participation in the affairs of the city.
If you’re not convinced, dust off your copies of the City Charter and the 2014 Comprehensive Plan for the City of Caribou and read them tonight. (Both documents are available at (www.cariboumaine.org). Then tomorrow morning, read the Report of the Caribou Secession Committee Territory Representatives that will be made publicly available on the website of the Bangor Daily News (www.bangordailynews.com). We promise, you will be surprised by what you read.
We strongly encourage every Caribou citizen, whether you live in the secession territory or not, to attend the Public Hearing on Secession which will be held Thursday, June 11, 2015 at 6 p.m., at the Caribou Performing Arts Center at the Caribou High School, 308 Sweden St. This hearing will be your opportunity to have your voice heard, and remember that apathy is the number one cause of high taxes.
Paul Camping
Caribou
