China select board authorizes assessor to update property valuations

by Mary Grow

China select board members voted unanimously at their April 22 meeting to authorize assessor William Van Tuinen to update property valuations to bring them close to the state-required level.

Van Tuinen told board members that the State of Maine says China properties are assessed at an average 76 percent of market value. They should be close to 100 percent.

Town officials had two options, Van Tuinen said.

They could ignore the discrepancy. In that case, the state would impose a lot of changes, like reducing taxpayers’ homestead exemption (from $25,000 to about $19,000, he said) and veterans’ exemption; lowering tree growth and farm woodland exemptions; and reducing the value of the Central Maine Power company assets that fund China’s Tax Increment Financing (TIF) fund.

Or, select board members could approve higher valuations, either across the board or by categories of property.

Select board members chose an across the board valuation increase, authorizing Van Tuinen to calculate the percentage that would bring town valuations close to market values.

Higher valuations will not increase taxes. Tax bills are calculated by multiplying property valuation by tax rate, so a higher valuation will mean a lower rate, to bring in the same amount of money.

Town officials expect local property taxes to increase in 2024-25, because more money is needed than in 2023-24 to cover school and municipal expenses and the Kennebec County tax.

Because taxes are already expected to go up, select board members rejected Director of Public Services Shawn Reed’s request to replace one of China’s 10-year-old public works trucks from the 2024-25 budget.

Reed said the truck he wants to buy is currently out of production, and likely to stay out for months, because of a problem with the transmission supplier. O’Connor Motors, in Augusta, has four suitable trucks on hand. If China officials spoke for one immediately, it could be available in a year or so.

Reed could not estimate when another might be available. He pointed out that the States of Maine, too, has trouble getting trucks, and without trucks (and drivers), neither town nor state can guarantee to keep roads plowed.

Reed did not recommend buying a used truck. It would come without a warranty and likely with problems, he said.

Town Manager Rebecca Hapgood and Reed shared 2024-25 paving bids and recommendations from China’s road committee. Select board members awarded the bid to the low bidder, Maine-ly Paving, of Canaan, at a price of $93.25 per ton of paving mix. Reed said the company’s work for China last year was satisfactory.

Summer resident Eric Lind, vice-president of the China Lake Association, raised three issues: the high water level in China Lake; the recently-received federal water quality grant that requires a local match, in money or in kind; and the South China boat landing.

The lake’s water level is slowly going down, Lind said. High water has caused shoreline erosion that will damage water quality.

Select board members have talked at intervals for over a year about improving the boat landing. Lind asked when action was scheduled.

Hapgood said physical improvements need to wait until the water level goes down. There was agreement that the landing will remain unpublicized, encouraging local use only, and that only small boats will be allowed.

The next regular China select board meeting is scheduled for Monday, May 6. It will be preceded by an ice cream social at 5:45 p.m. in the town office, followed by a public hearing at which voters can ask questions and make comments about articles to be voted on at the June 11 annual town business meeting.