Reversing Property Taxes

Blue state governors, mayors, and municipal leaders often say property taxes cannot come down, spiking here to say. Nonsense. Property taxes – a local revenue source – are affected by state and local policies. They are also determined by the “will of The People.” Here is how you cut them.

Short of a statewide referendum or a consensus among legislators, the governor, and local leaders that property taxes must come down, which are killing seniors, young people, and everyone in between, a number of concrete ways exist for cutting property taxes, if leaders become fiscally conservative.

First, consider a top-view of real causes. People do not volunteer to pay high property taxes. In states like Maine, they are killing property owners and renters of all ages and incomes.

High property taxes in blue states are driven by high post-COVID property assessments (pushed up by out-of-state homebuying in rural areas), in-migration by undocumented or illegal aliens (which demand housing, schools and benefits), infrastructure weakness, school costs (worse with outsized administrative overhead, in-migration of illegals, leftists mandate), high public safety costs (police and jails hit by drug trafficking), unfunded state mandates and local mismanagement.

States controlled by Democrats spend and tax more, raising money to cover often ideological priorities with higher income, sales, and property taxes. In a Democrat-controlled state like Maine, all three spiked last year, along with energy costs, again driven by state ideology.

Property taxes, however, are especially painful. The top states are chiefly Democrat. If the governor, legislature, state officials, and locals are Democrats, watch out. In Maine, median per capita income is $42,000, and yet working adults under 35 are forced to pay rent that comes out $200 per month over their median monthly income. That is unsustainable, kills the American Dream.

Worse, in states like Maine with many seniors – Maine has the oldest population – unusually high property taxes mean those on fixed incomes are either strapped, always anxious, or simply cannot afford to stay in homes they bought and paid off decades ago. They still pay high rent to the government.

So, what are some answers? Let’s work through causes, using that lens to see the answers. 

First, property tax increases after COVID – especially for rural states – have been out of control, unprecedented, in a word, astronomical. Again, to use Maine as an example, some towns and counties have seen a doubling or tripling of property taxes, with no change in the residence.

In short, as the wealthy fled cities – many seeking a second home – demand outstripped supply, raising the average home price. The answer is two-fold. In the short term, so-called “mill rates,” the rate of property tax for a town or the average percentage charged to a town’s homeowners, should come down, in theory, restabilizing the average homeowner’s bill.

If everything else were held constant, this could be done at the local level, and property taxes would fall. Thus, if New Yorkers fleeing COVID or their communist mayor bought a property worth $300,000, with a town “mill rate” of 40, but the assessed value went to $400,000, the town could drop the “mill rate” to 30, and nothing rises, or to a “mill rate” of 20, and taxes fall to $8000.

Fair enough, but you ask me: “Bobby, how can property taxes come down as assessed values, driven by rising out-of-state (or in-state) demand for our homes, go up?” The answer is we need to do more than lower “mill rates.” Democrat-led towns got higher assessments after COVID, but did not lower “mill rates” so they could (rather sneaky) spend that extra money, as Democrats like to do.

So, what else can be done? One bold stroke would be to stop importing undocumented or illegal aliens, who then demand or get from Democrats costly (and scarce) housing, schools, and benefits, while stressing that schools are ill-equipped to teach thousands who are behind and have no English. Stop the inflow, encourage outflow, and school costs to counties and towns go down.

What else? Since schools and public safety are the highest costs, and many blue states are way deep in extra school administration (read: bureaucrats), cut the fat, roll back the mindless, often Marxist mandates on schools, free them up to do their own thing, radically reducing school costs.

To that, add state pressure – using state money that supplements local schools – to get more waste out of the system. On public safety, short-term investments in more and better-paid police (and teachers), with effective drug treatment, reduce long-term crime, health, and homeless costs.

Then turn to home building, which elevates supply, reducing prices. Incentivize home-building not with more public housing but better trained labor, putting “shop” or the trades back in high schools, building ties between these kids and employers, dropping regulations – or pressing towns to drop them – to speed up building, and offering tax breaks for those who lean in.

Finally, property taxes come down when fortifying infrastructure, end drug trafficking with force and deterrence, roll back all the ideological and burden-shifting mandates on towns, and begin training local managers – to manage and lead, not pretend they know how, when they do not.

Do this, and property taxes in blue states can come down. People just need to speak up, demand change, and often sweep out those at the “top.” Property taxes are today astronomical in many blue states – including Maine. Yet this weight can be lifted. For many to survive, taxes must come down.

Robert Charles is a former Assistant Secretary of State under Colin Powell, former Reagan and Bush 41 White House staffer, Maine attorney, ten-year naval intelligence officer (USNR), and 25-year businessman. He wrote “Narcotics and Terrorism” (2003), “Eagles and Evergreens” (North Country Press, 2018), and “Cherish America: Stories of Courage, Character, and Kindness” (Tower Publishing, 2024). He is the National Spokesman for AMAC. Today, he is running to be Maine’s next Governor (please visit BobbyforMaine.com to learn more)!