Assessing

2024 Bradley Revaluation

Mark J. Gibson, Assessors’ Agent

This year Bradley has finished a revaluation project with the adjustment of land and building schedules for the 2024 commitment. The changing real estate market has altered values and created an inequity that Maine law requires be corrected.

The first revaluation performed by this Agent was completed for the 1990 tax year. A second multi-year project was completed for the 2009 tax year. The schedules for land and buildings have not been adjusted since. Recently, ratio studies performed annually by the Maine Revenue Service and my own studies have indicated that another adjustment was required. The overall change in values for the community is significant due to staggering sale prices over the last few years. In my opinion, this is due partly to the COVID panic, the restriction of domestic energy production, and the printing of money by the federal government.

The Maine Constitution requires that property taxes be assessed equitably and according to “just value.” Maine courts long ago equated just value with market value. This is ad valorem taxation, meaning that property will be assessed according to its real (or market) value – “what a willing buyer would pay a willing seller.” Of course, mass appraisal or revaluation, is more complicated than that, since the assessor looks at many properties – some of which have sold recently, others that have not.

This is a restoration of equity and not a back-door tax increase. A revaluation has nothing to do with the size of the overall tax commitment; it merely adjusts how it is apportioned. The Bradley commitment is decided by residents at the town meeting and school budget meetings. All Bradley properties are valued from the same land and building schedules. No one is catching a break nor is anyone being treated unfairly.

It should be noted that this Agent considers the new values to be somewhat conservative. Future adjustments or fine tuning may be necessary depending upon subsequent ratio studies.

It is noted that due to location some properties do not receive the same municipal services. Maine courts have ruled that “the equal taxation requirement does not carry an implication that the benefits arising from taxation should be enjoyed by all people in equal degree, nor that each person should participate in each particular benefit” (Sawyer v. Gilmore).