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Regional assessors agree to rerun housing and tax reports after debate over 2005 funding formula
Summary
Rangeley-area assessors and selectpersons debated a long-used regional funding formula that weights valuation, population and housing units; participants questioned census-age data and agreed to rerun Trio/property reports with an April 1 reference date for review at the next quarterly meeting.
Casey Johnson, who presented the spreadsheet used to allocate fire and solid-waste costs across the plantations, said the group has relied on a formula originally drafted in 2005 and that the formula averages three factors — building valuation, year-round/seasonal population and housing units — to compute each community’s percentage share.
"This is the the formula that you're currently most based on," Johnson said while displaying the spreadsheet, and he reported Rangeley’s share has run roughly 48–53% historically and was about 52.7% in the current printout.
Several assessors and plantation attendees questioned the data inputs and how they reflect current conditions. An assessor asked whether the meeting was relying on 2005 data; attendees noted that the U.S. census is decennial and that housing-unit counts and short-term rentals have changed rapidly. One participant told the group, "I don't see where valuation comes into play at all in how much trash gets created," arguing valuation can skew allocations for operational services such as solid-waste collection.
Participants proposed practical alternatives to update counts and make allocations fairer. Suggestions included using Trio/property-tax records or building-permit logs to count housing units and using an agreed annual reference date (several attendees proposed April 1) so all communities run the same report. The group agreed to request updated Trio reports and review the recalculated allocations at the next quarterly meeting.
The presenter emphasized that housing units had been removed administratively for a brief interval but were now restored in the calculation. For communities that reported they did not receive the formula with their invoice, the presenter said staff would distribute the spreadsheet to every plantation office.
What’s next: attendees asked Rangeley and the other plantations to produce the agreed Trio/property runs using the prior-year ending Dec. 31 or the suggested April 1 reference, and to return with results at the next quarterly meeting for a data-driven review.
No formal vote was taken; the group agreed to the data run and a follow-up review date.
