Greenville selectmen want the committee to know that property tax relief should be an overall tax reduction and not a tax shift.

Simko told selectmen Wednesday that Gov. John Baldacci plans to reintroduce "LD2" for property tax relief, a program not unlike Tree Growth tax law. For taxation purposes, the valuation for properties eligible for Homestead exemptions would be capped at inflation until they were sold, he said.

When sold, a withdrawal penalty would be paid and the property valuation would be readjusted to market value.

Under the proposal, those with Homestead exemptions would see tax relief, but those who own more than one home and-or own businesses would see an increase, Simko explained. In essence, the proposal would create two different tax rates for properties in a community.

"To me, that’s a double standard," Selectwoman Bonnie DuBien said Wednesday.

Selectman Alan McBrierty agreed with DuBien. "There’s got to be a gain here somehow; it shouldn’t be at the cost of something else going up," he said Wednesday.

Simko said an argument can be made that the state’s various property tax programs currently in existence — the Homestead exemption, Veteran’s Exemption, and the Tree Growth programs — all treat certain taxpayers differently from one another.

However, in each of these programs, the state reimburses the towns for the "lost revenue," with the exception of one-half of the Homestead exemption, he said.

"LD2" at first would have little impact on Greenville since the town recently completely a revaluation and property values are at or very near 100 percent of market value, Simko said.

However, the next revaluation would result in two different value changes: Homesteaders would go up by the cost-of-living per year for each year since the program began, unless the program required annual adjustments, while surrounding properties would go up to actual sales of like properties, Simko explained.

"Over time, there would be a greater divergence in the property values of Homesteaders and non-Homesteaders," Simko said.

This would have some impact on the tax rate paid by everyone, Simko said. If the tax rate goes up to cover the cost of the lost revenue from those in this program, even those people in the program will pay the higher rate, which will mean they, in part, are paying for their own tax relief, he said.

But those who do not have "frozen valuations" will have to pay the higher tax rate based on a higher valuation increase than those in this program, he said.

For property tax relief, Simko believes the state:

• Should make services more "pay as you go," so those who benefit are also those who pay for given services.
• Require the Unorganized Territory to pay the actual cost for education to schools, instead of the average per pupil cost for education.
• Initiate a 1-cent sales tax increase and funnel it through the counties as "county revenue sharing."