Trying to Find quiet places, 4th of July & New Years

[svband76]

Originally Posted by Submariner

Power outages are routine here, we expect to see at least two or three every month. During our first decade living here, I was documenting them, but after so many years I got tired of it all. And we installed solar power, to give us something more reliable. Our local power company has never been capable of providing continuous power for a 30-day stretch.

That would be a dream far beyond what these guys have the capacity to reach.



Today I spoke with a man who owns a house three towns over, his house is only 1200 sq ft on less than a quarter-acre of land, and he is paying over $4,000 in taxes every year. Whereas my house is 5,000 sq ft on 150 acres of land, and I pay $800 a year. The difference? Is obvious, he lives in an 'organized town', and I live in an 'unorganized township'. [most of Maine [52%] is unorganized townships].

Our township was once an organized town, but when the residents learned of how the system works they burned the town charter and 'dis-organized' to lower their taxes.

Regarding an unorganized town, is it that anyone or any developer can do pretty much anything? Is there a good source that explains the pros and cons? I read where a little town, not sure where, wants to de-organize..

[Submariner]

Originally Posted by svband76

Regarding an unorganized town, is it that anyone or any developer can do pretty much anything?

There is a state office that does the zoning and planning for the UTs. LUCP they are all political appointees. They recently re-wrote their long-term vision for the UTs.

A part of what I hate about government bureaucrats is how they can take a simple idea that could be written on a single page of paper and they will crank out 100 pages of regulations.

You would need to go through LUCP to see if what you want is allowed.

I only wanted to build a house on my land, and my building permit was approved quickly. They even called me to compliment me on how I filled out the application.

I had walked my property lines with a GPS in my pocket, so I had a to-scale map of my land and exactly where I wanted to put my house.

The most difficult part of the application was an essay on how you plan to prevent soil erosion. I found a state DEP website with a page on preventing soil erosion, and I did a cut&paste from that page.

... Is there a good source that explains the pros and cons?

Your best source would be to sit down and talk with anyone who lives in the UTs.

... I read where a little town, not sure where, wants to de-organize..

To date, 41 towns have de-organized. I live in one of them.

Recently in the news, the town of Oxbow was de-organized in 2017. The state legislature fought them tooth and nail over it. It makes a HUGE difference in your taxes.

Maine has a total of 986 towns surveyed on the map, 52% of Maine is UT.

Every square foot of Maine is taxed. The taxes from 52% of the state go to provide school tuition for less than 100 kids.

As compared to a town with 500 school children that can only derive taxes from itself, obviously, such a town will have taxes in the order of 4X to 10X higher.

[kellysmith]

Originally Posted by Submariner

Every square foot of Maine is taxed. The taxes from 52% of the state go to provide school tuition for less than 100 kids.

As compared to a town with 500 school children that can only derive taxes from itself, obviously, such a town will have taxes in the order of 4X to 10X higher.

Neither of those statements are correct. It's complicated, but State Funding for Education basically correlates to the property valuation of the locality and the financial standing of the citizens. A school district that has a large percentage of students that qualify for free or reduced price school lunches will receive more state funding per student. In other words, it's means based.

https://www.maine.gov/doe/funding/gpa/eps

[Submariner]

Originally Posted by kellysmith

Neither of those statements are correct. It's complicated, but State Funding for Education basically correlates to the property valuation of the locality and the financial standing of the citizens. A school district that has a large percentage of students that qualify for free or reduced price school lunches will receive more state funding per student. In other words, it's means based.

I have met folks previously who thought that taxes from the organized towns somehow subsidized the tuition for children from the UTs.

Then talking to the state tax assesor office I was told that the UTs are taxed sufficiently to cover school tuition for UT children, without any funds coming from the organized towns.

I think there is only one school district within a UT.

Most UT children go to schools in organized towns and those schools are paid tuition from the state. Derived from the UTs.