Did all BH seniors who voted for new school know they would be paying for it?

OTHER NEWS: As Lamoine enacts moratorium on transient lodging, will Bar Harbor follow? How will Cornell Knight manage such a debate?

BAR HARBOR, Aug. 19, 2023 - How many of the senior citizens who voted in favor of the $58 million school bond in June did so because they thought they would not be paying for the resulting tax increase?

A state tax abatement program freezing property taxes for Maine residents 65 and older for 10 years was repealed three weeks after the town election.

How many seniors still do not realize they will be on the hook for bills which could average $1,000 or higher once the bond payments kick into effect in two years? Town Finance Director Sarah Gilbert is preparing a 25-year bond which will start in FY26.

One elected town official said several seniors told him they voted for the project because “it wouldn’t affect my taxes.”

The program’s repeal July 6 resulted in the abatement lasting only one-year. About 350 applicants were approved in town, according to the assessor’s office. They were not subject to the 11.5 percent increase in local property taxes this year - or $247,612 in the aggregate which will be reimbursed by the state.

But they will face a stiff hike next year which could exceed 20 percent if the FY25 budget comes in as high as this year.

To be sure, many of the seniors would have supported the school anyway. The school bond was approved 1,005 votes to 502 June 13.

But with multiple voters in a household, the large group of senior voters could have affected the outcome if they voted against the bond.

The proposed repeal received scant coverage from the Maine media. The QSJ reported the pending repeal on March 4, but it was the third article in a long post that day.

In my article, Assessor Steven Weed called “LD 290” the worst tax abatement legislation he’s seen in 32 years.

State Rep. Lynne Williams of Bar Harbor called it a mess - the law sponsored by Republican State Senate leader Harold “Trey” Stewart of Presque Isle to abate all property tax increases for persons 65 or older as long as they claimed a Maine homestead exemption for 10 years. There were no income limits.

Stewart came up with the idea from a woman in a grocery store in Presque Isle, he told the QSJ in an interview last year. He never consulted Lewis Cousins, the local assessor in Presque Isle who would have told him the law doesn’t necessarily assist the needy.

On MDI, where retirees are among the wealthiest residents, 18 applicants in Bar Harbor were for properties exceeding $1 million in taxable value. In Mount Desert it was even more extreme. Twenty of the 168 approved applicants were for properties exceeding $1 million with the highest being $2,874,000.

The 168 Mount Desert abatements saved those taxpayers $66,099 this year, Assessor Kyle Avila said.

The 350 in Bar Harbor represented about 10 percent of taxable properties in town, Weed said.

SWH Town Manager Marilyn Lowell reported 100 approved applications representing $24,851,868 in assessed value and a $36,603 savings for those applicants.

But no other MDI towns had a bond as large as Bar Harbor on their ballots.

After the repeal on July 6, the legislature bolstered two of its existing programs for helping the elderly with tax abatement.

The Property Tax Fairness Credit, which currently allows eligible Mainers to take a $1,500 credit, was increased to $2,000.

The State Property Tax Deferral Program, a lifeline loan program that covers the annual property tax bills of Maine seniors age 65 and older who cannot afford to pay them on their own, was expanded. It doubled the income limit on that program to $80,000 and also raised asset limits.

In addition to all the problems with the Stewart bill, it had the unintended consequence of giving seniors a risk-free proposition to support municipal capital projects across the board.

Maine has the oldest population in the United States with a media age of 44.8, according to the World Population Review. It also has the high percentage of citizens over 65 - 21.8 percent - more than Florida’s 21.3 percent.

Lamoine latest area town to approve moratorium on glampgrounds, hotels, motels

LAMOINE - A special town meeting on Tuesday overwhelmingly approved a moratorium on permits and application approvals for glampgrounds, hotels, motels and other resorts for the next 180 days.

The moratorium freezes consideration of Arizona-based Clear Sky Resorts’ application to develop a glampground on 230 acres near Partridge Cove.

It gives the town Planning Board an opportunity to review its existing ordinance structure and determine if new ordinances are required to regulate similar developments, Town Attorney Dan Pileggi told the Maine Monitor.

Clear Sky Resorts submitted an application in January to develop 12 acres of a 230-acre parcel on Partridge Cove into a high-end camping resort called “Clear Sky Acadia,” which prompted opposition from local residents concerned about its size and location.

The application included plans for dozens of dome-shaped lodging structures, ranging from 425 to 845 square feet, full of amenities like electricity, running water and air conditioning that make them more akin to hotel rooms than campsites.

Photos of proposed domes in Lamoine glampground application

Aside from the 90 “guest domes,” the campground would feature a restaurant, spa, employee housing and “activity domes” for stargazing and bird watching.

About 400 Lamoine residents packed the gymnasium of the Lamoine Consolidated School for Tuesday’s meeting, accounting for just under 25 percent of registered voters. Fewer than 10 voted against the moratorium, town administrator Stu Marckoon told Maine Monitor.

In Tremont, a six-month moratorium adopted in November 2021 stopped all campground developments after a controversial 154-site luxury campground, including 72 RVs, was proposed near Goose Cove.

That eventually was cut down to 45 units in an out-of-court settlement last year.

Tremont residents on May 10, 2022 adopted stricter standards for future campground developments that impose size restrictions and spacing requirements, the most stringent in Hancock County. They included a 75-foot setback from abutting property lines.

Will Bar Harbor follow Lamoine and Tremont’s leads and take a six-month hiatus from development of transient lodging?

Town Council member Matt Hochman proposed such a moratorium this week. The idea is being discussed among other members of the council as well.

“I would love to get a legal opinion on an emergency moratorium on transient accommodation, while we look to a tourism capacity study,” Hochman said.

“We talked about suspending the cruise ship committee because there are too many visitors. But we are continuing to allow transient accommodations with with no rein whatsoever.”

As Hochman spoke, the Planning Board has under its consideration two such applications - one for a 10-cottage development in Town Hill and another from former planning chair Tom St. Germain for four units which the QSJ wrote about on Aug. 13. Would they be suspended as Lamoine did with the Glampground?

In July Code Enforcement Officer Angela Chamberlain compiled a list of all transient lodging units off of tax records, showing that the number of such units, 3,500, now exceeds the town’s total number of dwelling units, 3,416.

Different pay for different “Interim” town managers

BAR HARBOR - The town plans to pay interim Town Manager Cornell Knight $1,920 a week for three days of work, or $1,420 more than it paid Finance Director Sarah Gilbert for performing the same tasks.

Moreover, Gilbert is still expected to bear the responsibility of all cruise ship matters because of Knight’s conflict of interest and for which she appears not to be compensated.

The details were contained in Knight’s contract obtained by the QSJ through a Maine Freedom of Access Act request.

Gilbert was paid only $500 a week as interim town manager from January to this week for work characterized by council chair Val Peacock as “doing two full-time jobs.” Peacock did not return several emails seeking details of Knight’s contract.

Indeed in July, Gilbert commuted to a Bangor courtroom for three straight days representing the town in the lawsuit against its cruise ship visitation caps and then went home at night and on weekends to perform her primary job as finance director.

She is one of the few town employees who returns emails on weekends.

Gilbert, who did not initiate this article, said at first she thought the interim assignment would last only a few weeks and appeared willing to just add the responsibilities to her current job.

“I’m glad I got paid,” she said. “It turned out to be a lot of work.”

Gilbert took on the added responsibilities to clean up after former town manager Kevin Sutherland was let go.

The town paid Sutherland a $70,000 severance to get him to resign in late January.

The Knight employment contract and a non-disclosure agreement inoculate the town somewhat against disclosure of confidential information by Knight whose previous employer, the Eaton Peabody law firm, is suing the town over the cruise ship cap.

But Eaton Peabody also represents the largest hotelier in town. Will Knight be expected to recuse himself from council member Hochman’s request for a legal opinion on suspending applications for transient lodging?

Knight was well liked by department heads and staff who felt well supported when he was town manager from 2014 to 2021. His current contract expires Nov. 16.

Knight and Sutherland were both products of Eaton Peabody’s search practice.

Council rejects practical elimination of public comment period

BAR HARBOR - Call it the AnnLinn Kruger effect.

Two council members who wanted to effectively kill the public comment period which has been a mainstay of Maine’s open public meetings were rebuffed by less reactionary colleagues this week.

At the council meeting Aug. 1, member Gary Friedman pitched the idea of an AnnLinn Kruger gag rule, to tell her she is no longer allowed to use the public comment period of council meetings, “because we’ve heard from her a dozen times.”

Fellow member Earl Brechlin has his own history with Kruger.

On March 10 he and Kruger were featured debaters at an Acadia Senior College “coffee clash” during which they were on the opposite sides of the question, “Can We Compose the Right to Protest and Our Need for Community?”

Brechlin questioned Kruger’s method of protest - she draws chalk images and writes protest words on public sidewalks.

Kruger’s target is Leonard Leo, the Federalist Society operative blamed for packing the Supreme Court with anti-abortion zealots. It’s safe to say that Kruger helped make Leo a household name on the island as many residents did not know about his summer residence in Northeast Harbor until Kruger’s story was widely covered.

Friedmann was the only member to support Brechlin’s proposal to move the public comment period to the end of the council meetings. The QSJ could find no other town in Maine which has this practice. (Please email me if you can find one.)

Several council member said this week they did not think folks would wait around for three hours to speak.

Council member Matt Hochman called out Brechlin for using an extreme example to characterize the public comment period when he said folks can get up to the mic and talk about anything like “black helicopters and UFOs.”

“Yes, people could come in and talk about black helicopters, but they don’t,” Hochman said.

“This is my eighth year on the council - maybe two or three times somebody has come up and spoken about something completely irrelevant … 99 percent of the time it is something that is pertinent to us in one way or another.”

Peacock added, “I don't care if people come in here and talk about black helicopters. You want to come and talk about something? Come and talk about it.

“This is my fourth year in council and you know how many different things you heard in a public comment period?

“People come in and thank people for things. They talked about events that have happened. They talked about issues that they think are important.”

It was a strange interlude to hear someone who presumably made his living off of the First Amendment - Brechlin was the longtime editor of the Islander - getting lectured on free speech.

At an earlier meeting, member Kyle Shank cautioned against gagging a citizen just because the topic was repetitive.

He reminded all that activist Erin Brockovich was relentless and even annoying. Brockovich was the subject of an Oscar-winning movie about her successful effort in building a case against Pacific Gas & Electric Company (PG&E) involving groundwater contamination in Hinkley, California.