By Rep. Michele Meyer, D-Eliot
For families in York County and across Maine, the rising cost of living is making it harder to make ends meet. The costs of housing, child care, health care and more have left folks struggling to keep up with their bills – let alone save for a rainy day or to get ahead.
When it comes to rising housing costs in particular, property taxes are one of a number of contributing factors. Since I was first elected to the Maine House in 2018, I have had countless conversations with constituents about property taxes, and I’ve worked hard to advance measures to provide relief.
Some quick background on property taxes: Each community in Maine is responsible for deciding what it will spend each year on local programs like road maintenance, fire and police departments, schools and waste disposal, to name a few. That spending level determines the local tax, or “mil”, rate, which is required by the state constitution to be applied to properties throughout the municipality based on their assessed values. The funds received are towns’ primary source of revenue to pay for the priorities that voters and local elected officials have approved.
The Legislature cannot directly determine each town’s budget and property tax rate – again, local voters and elected officials are responsible for that – but we do need to do all we can to help local communities who are doing their very best while faced with deeply difficult decisions to cut services, raise property taxes, or both. And we need to recognize that, in communities like ours, too many are being priced out of their homes by forces far beyond their control.
In the Legislature, I have worked with my colleagues to invest in our communities and ease the burden on property taxpayers. We fought to reverse deep, devastating LePage-era cuts to the municipal revenue sharing program, which returns a percentage of state revenues directly to communities, reducing the proportion of their budgets that must be paid for with property taxes.
Between 2018, when I was first elected, and 2023, we increased by two-and-a-half times the percentage of revenue sent back to local communities through revenue sharing. To put that in a local perspective, the dollar amount received by my hometown, Eliot, increased from just $267,886.55 in Fiscal Year 2019 to $1,030,058.40 in Fiscal Year 2025.
In our town alone, the work of the Legislature, along with Gov. Janet Mills, nearly quadrupled the property tax relief benefits from this program. The other towns I represent, Kittery and South Berwick, received similar increases in state funding through revenue sharing during the same timeframe.
At the same time, I worked with my colleagues to greatly expand the Property Tax Fairness Income Tax Credit, which provides targeted property tax and rent relief to Maine residents most burdened by property taxes. We increased the Homestead Exemption, which reduces the amount of property taxes owed on year-round residents’ primary homes, by 25%. We expanded property tax relief for disabled veterans in particular, providing additional support to Mainers who have sacrificed so much for our country. And we increased state funding for pre-K through grade 12, meeting the state’s obligation to cover its share of education costs for the first time in history.
While I am proud of this work, without which we would have seen even steeper increases in property taxes, Mainers need us to do more. This is especially true in the face of national economic headwinds and harmful policies from the federal government that make it more difficult to afford life’s necessities, like deep cuts to health care and steep taxes on imported food and other staples.
That’s why this year, the Legislature unanimously supported legislation to examine the root causes of rising property taxes and identify how we can help towns hold the line.
It’s also why I am focused, as co-chair of the Legislature’s Health and Human Services Committee, on ensuring that all Mainers have access to quality health care that they can afford.
And why I am dedicated to making our state more affordable and our economy stronger for everyone in the upcoming legislative session, which begins in January.
My commitment to you is this: I will always work to lower the cost of living for Maine people, whether they are families working hard to get by or retirees who have worked hard their whole lives and deserve a dignified retirement.
I hope you will reach out to me to share your thoughts. I can be reached at michele.meyer@legislature.maine.gov.
Rep. Michele Meyer, D-Eliot, is serving her fourth term in the Maine House. She represents Eliot and parts of both Kittery and South Berwick.