I'd rather have an honest liberal

have you ever noticed how a repuke wants all the benefits but always is trying to squeeze out of his fair share?
well here is an example of cronyism to the nth power:
Bill Nemitz: Money didn't fall far from the trees

Just over two weeks ago, in one of his almost-daily email assaults on the Maine State Housing Authority, state Treasurer Bruce Poliquin made a plea on behalf of the beleaguered Maine taxpayer.


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AIRING IT OUT


Tune in to NewsRadio 560 WGAN at 8:08 a.m. today to hear columnist Bill Nemitz talk about this column and other issues

“Maine taxpayers also pay federal and local taxes, all of which are used to build MSHA low-income apartments,” he noted. “All of it is our hard-earned money. It doesn’t grow on trees.”

Except, that is, in the treasurer’s own backyard.

Poliquin, already under the Maine attorney general’s microscope because his private business activities appear to run afoul of a constitutional ban on moonlighting by the state treasurer, now has more explaining to do. This time, it’s about how much he pays in local property taxes.

Or, to be more accurate, how little.

The story, broken this week by the website Maine’s Majority, goes like this:

Back in 2004, Poliquin applied for a tax abatement on his oceanfront mansion and surrounding 12 acres on a secluded peninsula in coastal Georgetown. Specifically, he wanted the town to drop the assessed value of his property from $2.8 million to $1.7 million.

The town said no.

Poliquin then appealed to the Sagadahoc County commissioners.

They, too, refused.

Ah, but all was not lost. That same year, Poliquin hired a licensed forester, put together a “management plan” for the 10 wooded acres behind his house and, with the town’s approval, saved himself a bundle by enrolling the property in Maine’s Tree Growth Tax program.

What’s that, you ask?

The Maine Forest Service, which oversees the program, explains it thusly on its website: “To enroll your property in the Maine Tree Growth Tax program, you must have at least ten acres of forest land managed primarily for the production of commercial forest products.”

The website also explains how the program is designed to “broadly support Maine’s woods products industry” by giving woodlot owners a property-tax break in exchange for the stimulus their wood harvesting operations provide the local economy.

Financially, it worked out rather nicely for Poliquin. By putting 10 of his 12 acres in tree growth in 2004, he dropped the overall assessed value of his land from $1,768,600 to $725,500 with the simple stroke of a pen.

For the 2011-12 tax year, that land has a total value of $943,500 – of which the 10 acres in tree growth account for a paltry $4,300.

And how does that translate into actual property taxes?

According to Georgetown’s property records, Poliquin’s tax bill is $6,668 on the two acres directly beneath his humble abode. (Taxes on the house and other structures total just over $13,000).

And the annual tax on the 10 acres of prime oceanfront land just behind the mansion?

That would be $30.53.

You read that right. The owner of what one state report calls “one of the most valuable residential lots in the State of Maine” pays less in taxes on the lion’s share of that land than a struggling family of four might pay for a rare night out at the pizza parlor.

this ain't all this ahole has pulled! time to apply the heat! call in my markers and drive it home!
resignation hell no -pin stripes are called for!