Bremen residents learned how landowners could preserve oceanfront property for commercial fishing use during a presentation at the Town Center on Feb. 25.
Jeff Kendall, a property appraiser from the Property Tax Division at the Maine Revenue Service, spoke in front of a small audience about the state Working Waterfront current use program.
Bremen had the highest acreage (20.70 acres) in Maine classified under the Working Waterfront program in 2008, according to Kendall and the Maine Revenue Service.
“If little Bremen is number one in acreage, that doesn’t say much for the state of Maine,” said Dianne O’Connor of the Bremen Conservation Commission, whose group sponsored the Wednesday night presentation.
According to a study conducted by the Island Institute (www.islandinstitute.org), just 20 miles of Maine’s 5300 miles of coastline are protected under the Working Waterfront law. Much of the protected 20 miles is privately owned.
Kendall added that more than 50 percent of the land in Maine is enrolled under a current use program for tax and preservation purposes. This includes the land in the northern region of the state used for timber harvesting, he said.
There are four current use programs available from the state, which were initiated by the Current Use tax law in 1969. Landowners may also apply to classify their property under Tree Growth, Open Space and Farmland current use classifications.
These classifications preserve land and allow property to be assessed for tax purposes based on current use conditions (such as a commercial fishing pier).
Local tax assessors rate properties for current use, which prevents the properties under these conditions to be taxed for adjusted market value for other purposes such as the construction of housing developments.
Kendall said there are other options for people who want to adjust property value and the Working Waterfront program might not be the answer. Additionally, people may qualify for the other current use programs if not for Working Waterfront. The program can reduce a landowner’s property tax, but the goal should be to follow the intent of the tax law, Kendall said.
According to Kendall, landowners whose parcel abuts tidal waters or is located in an intertidal zone may qualify for the Working Waterfront current use program. This classification requires that more than 50 percent of the parcel’s use is related to commercial fishing.
This law applies to land along tidal waters only. The tax savings in this classification in part depends on this percentage of use. Adjoining strips of land under this classification that are not used for commercial fishing can be included as long as the land is not used for other purposes, Kendall said, adding that this provides a little wiggle room for the assessor.
Working Waterfront landowners may qualify for a percentage reduction in taxes that correspond with the amount the assessed parcel is being used for commercial fishing. Possible tax reductions could amount to 10, 20, 40 or 50 percent.
The law states that Working Waterfront land predominantly (more than 90 percent) used for commercial fishing is eligible for a 20 percent tax reduction. It goes on to say that deeded restrictions, permanently protecting the land from change is eligible for an additional 30 percent tax reduction.
Bremen resident Ruth Prior said she and her husband, who own a parcel on the shore, might be interested in the program. Her husband, soon to be 65, is a lobsterman who has roughly 500 traps and plans to continue fishing. She came to the meeting as they don’t know what the future holds.
“As long as he can get one leg over the boat, he’ll be going,” Prior said, adding that they may at some point wish to sell. “Our taxes are so high and they get higher every year.”
Prior said she didn’t think she would save any money in taxes with the program, but would apply anyway. She wanted to know what the penalty would be if they put their land under the Working Waterfront classification and then later sold the land. Kendall said the classification would stay with the land.
New landowners who purchase Working Waterfront property have to file an application to withdraw from the program within one year of purchase. Failure to do so could result in penalties, but only to the new landowner and not the seller, Kendall said.
Current use landowners may have to pay a fine in one of two ways if their land falls out of the classification requirements.
One resident asked what would happen if the land was available for commercial fishing use, but no one was using it. Kendall said landowners shouldn’t have to pay a fine as long as the land meets the requirements of the current use classification. Referencing Yogi Berra, Kendall said that if no one comes to the game, nobody can stop them. This elicited a few chuckles from the group.
If the land is used for purposes other than working waterfront, such as using a pier for leisure boating activities, the landowner would be subject to the fine.
Landowners might also choose to remove the land from the program. It is a costly fine, Kendall said, but some developers are willing to pay the price.
Some landowners might be able to switch the classification from Working Waterfront to another current use program, such as Open Space. In such an instance, the landowner would not be required to pay a fine.
The only other instance in which a landowner would not have to pay a fine if the current use land falls out of the classification requirements would be if the land was taken by eminent domain.
“Penalties stay local,” Kendall added, later highlighting some of the benefits to current use programs. “They go back to the town and not to the state.”
There is a visual benefit to preserving land for such constructive use, as opposed to the effect housing developments and private mansions have for local citizens, he said. Kendall added that undeveloped land is also a lot cheaper for a town to maintain than developed land.
Kendall described a situation with a Penobscot Bay landowner who was offered money in exchange for the installation of a cell phone tower. The man did not want the tower on his property, but was offered an unspecified amount of funds if he allowed it to happen. After consulting with Kendall, the man went to the town to see what sort of tax break he might be able to get for his property, which had visual appeal and was enjoyed by members of the community.
One person attending the presentation said he could see the benefit of the Working Waterfront current use program for landowners with large parcels, but many fishermen own piers along the shore and small tracts of land. The resident didn’t think these fishermen were involved in the program.
Kendall said that April 1, which is the program application deadline, comes every year. He said people shouldn’t rush such a decision and it is best to have all of the facts first.
To find out more about the Working Waterfront current use program, Kendall suggested the website: www.maine.gov/revenue/propertytax. The phone number for the Property Tax Division is 287-2013. Kendall can be reached at 287-4786.
The website for the Bremen Conservation Commission is: www.bremenconservation.blogspot.com.