DEDHAM, Maine — Jill Grant has for the last 20 years paid the property tax on her Phillips Lake camp at the beginning of November, so it’s understandable she was befuddled when she opened her mail earlier this month and the new bill was due Oct. 3.
“I thought they just made a mistake,” she said in a telephone interview Wednesday. But when she called the Dedham Town Office, Grant was told the due date was accurate.
Michelle Begin, an administrative assistant to the town’s selectmen, confirmed Wednesday that property tax bills have been due in November for “quite a few years.”
However, the town needed the tax revenue earlier this year to help make up for decreased state aid for education, she said.
“What’s happened over the years is the amount the state gives us monthly is dropping every year,” Begin said. “I think we get about $12,000 from the state now versus $40,000-50,000 a month” in the past.
So selectmen opted to have the taxes due for the July 1, 2010, to June 30, 2011, fiscal year paid by Oct. 3.
Grant was upset, however, that she did not find out about the change until she received her tax bill in September. She contacted four neighbors on the lake who also have seasonal homes, along with two friends who live in town. They also were not previously aware of the change.
Begin said that most residents and camp owners had been notified earlier by email.
Begin did acknowledge that there “is a population that doesn’t do email,” but the people at the town office did all they could to notify residents.
“I felt that we tried to get it out there so people wouldn’t be surprised,” said Begin, who added there are between 350-400 people on the town’s email list.
Mike Rogers, supervisor of municipal services for Maine Revenue Services, said that towns have a right to decide when to collect taxes, and that the town of Dedham didn’t have to clear it with the administrative offices in Augusta.
“They can change from year to year,” he said of due dates.
Nonetheless, Grant isn’t too happy with the situation, though she said she would be able to pay the tax bill a month earlier than she had planned for.
“I will pay it on time,” she said. “I don’t think they should be allowed to do that without notifying people. It doesn’t seem right to me.”
She wondered, however, if the town might ask for the tax payment earlier next year.
Begin said she envisions the due date staying the same next year, but maybe being changed by a couple of weeks in the future.
“What I foresee is it staying where it is or possibly moving up another 15 days,” she said. “We were getting pretty low as far as our money. We get [a] chunk of our money from taxpayers.”
In the future, Grant is hopeful that she’ll be notified sooner than the month’s notice she received.
“It would’ve been good to know ahead of time,” she said. “I think if they want to move the due date they should notify people.”
