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Gardiner City Hall
6 Church Street
Gardiner, ME 04345
Monday - Friday
8:00am - 4:30pm
(207) 582-4200
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News and Press Releases Archived press releases, announcements, mailings and memos regarding the Revaluation Project
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Article IX ,Section 8 of the Maine Constitution States: "All taxes upon real and personal estate, assessed by authority of this State, shall be apportioned and assessed equally according to the just value thereof." Further, Maine Statute requires that all municipalities in the State meet a minimum set of assessment standards designed to ensure that this Constitutional requirement is met. The standards include provisions that a municipality's assessment ratio shall not fall below 70% of market value and that the qualtity (equity) ratiing shall not be more than 20. Title 36 Section 327
The authority to adjust assessments to meet this requirement is vested in the Assessor, acting as an agent of the State of Maine. Generally, an assessment model is created during a revaluation with which the Assessor will value property for taxation. Gardiner's current model was developed during the 1996-97 revaluation. The Assessor may adjust the model periodically to account for modest market changes. Over a period of time, however, the assessing model in use becomes outdated and no longer yields equitable assessments. It is at this point that the Assessor generally will request funds to complete a new revaluation.
The authority to appropriate funds to conduct a revalation is vested in the local voting body of the municipality. In Gardiner, pursuant to the City Charter, Chapter 2 Section 1, that authority is vested in the City Council. When the Council appropriates funds for a revauation it is with the understanding that the City has an obligation to ensure fair taxation for its citizens under the law and ensure that State constitutional and ctatutory requirments are met. A project so large in scope as a full revaluation is only
undertaken and appropriated for when the Council is sufficiently convinced that current markets are so contrary to the current assessment model that only a full revaluation can restore equity to the tax burden.
The followiing is a chronological account of information disseminated to Council and to the General Public.
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November 2007 |
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December 2006 |
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December 2006 |
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July 2006 |
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February 2006 |
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