A Brunswick lawmaker has proposed a bill designed to offer property tax relief to commercial fishermen and people who own mobile homes.

Democratic Rep. Dan Ankeles said he was inspired to introduce the bill, L.D. 2162, after some Brunswick homeowners faced steep property tax hikes last year due to a revaluation that was later delayed.

Soaring home values in recent years have resulted in property tax hikes for homeowners across the state.

“Rising home values in towns all over Maine are causing big disruptions in how we typically spread our property tax burden, and it’s hitting some Mainers harder than others,” Ankeles said. “For both Maine’s fishing families and for those who own mobile homes, the sharp increase in property taxes due to rising home values and the rising costs of education and local government puts them at risk of losing their homes and their livelihoods.”

Ankeles’ bill has two main components. One would make those whose home is valued at less than $100,000 to be eligible for a $15,000 tax exemption, on top of the homestead exemption that offers up to a $25,000 exemption.

“This will protect people who own mobile homes from being swamped by valuation-related tax increase and increase the chance they don’t lose their home,” Ankeles testified during a public hearing on the bill last week, adding the state would reimburse municipalities for the lost tax revenue. “Does that cost us money at the state level? Yes. Is it an ounce of prevention, the value of which can’t be measured by a fiscal note? Also yes.”

The second part of the bill would amend the Current Land Use program, which provides tax relief for land designated as working waterfronts, to encourage business owners like commercial fishermen to enroll, especially if they run their business from their home.

“Gentrification along our coastline and rising property taxes are threatening the ability of those who work on the water to afford to live on the water, often times in houses passed down by several generations,” said Jessica Joyce, a member of the Coastal and Marine Working Group of the Maine Climate Council who testified in support of the bill. “Practitioners expect the frequency of loss of working waterfront property to increase due to recent storm damage. Now is the time to protect these properties and our heritage fisheries more than ever, and the Current Land Use program offers an opportunity to do just that.”

Peter Lacy, a staff attorney with the state Office of Tax Policy, testified state officials have several concerns about the bill, including the addition of about $8 million in municipal tax reimbursements the state would be responsible for and the bill’s possible implementation this year, which would create “significant administrative issues.”

“Property tax relief is important, and in the last five years, the state has increased both school and revenue sharing funding, expanded the homestead exemption and significantly increased targeted property tax relief through the Property Tax Fairness Credit,” Lacy testified. “However, enactment of this bill will increase the complexity of an already-complex group of property tax relief programs.”

Ankeles said he’s willing to amend the bill.

“My ask for this year is to pass some version of this bill so we can reduce the immediate harm to both fishermen and to mobile homeowners,” he testified. “Maine’s current property tax system is no longer cut out to support what it costs to run a municipality or a school system. Second … it is wildly unrealistic to tell towns to just tighten their belts. And thirdly … doing nothing at the state level will accelerate gentrification and drive working- and middle-class families and older Mainers on fixed incomes from the communities they love and — in some cases — have spent their whole lives in.”

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