CARIBOU, Maine — Caribou city councilors were unable to agree upon whether good intentions could supercede legal obligations during their last meeting, and that discussion is anticipated to continue during next Monday’s meeting.
The old Corbin Electric’s building at 501 Main Street, since collapsed and removed, was the reason for the ethical dialogue.
Chris and Tracy Corbin are in the process of acquiring the property from Chris’ parents, Joseph and Laura, but two years of back taxes need to be paid before doing so. Chris and Tracy Corbin attended the June 9 City Council meeting with an abatement request for back taxes from 2012 and 2013, totaling $5,770. The building had been assessed at $108,900 in 2012, which dropped to $25,600 in 2014; a few weeks after City Assessor Penny Thompson assessed the building, it collapsed. The Corbins outlined their future plans for the cleaned-up property, which includes the construction of a new workshop.
The Corbins were requesting an abatement of $3,315 that, as Tracy explained, was due to “common sense thinking.”
“The building value went from $108,900 to $25,600, so I’m just thinking in two years, a building doesn’t degrade that amount to where it just collapses,” Corbin offered. “I’m just using a common sense approach and saying is there any way we can pay you what the reassessed value was on March 10 (2014).”
While the councilors agreed that the Corbins have done a good job in cleaning up the property, some questioned the fairness of creating a special abatement when there is an outlined procedure for requesting the relief already in place.
Mayor Gary Aiken understood that the Corbins were purchasing the property from the elder Corbins, who incurred the tax debt, but expressed concerns for the fairness of abating two-year-old back taxes.
“The (elder) Corbins had the opportunity that every other taxpayer had to request an abatement, and they didn’t do that for two years … and now you want us to go back two years and abate the taxes. My concern is whether that’s fair to the other taxpayers in Caribou,” he said.
Councilor David Martin was in favor of granting Chris and Tracy Corbin the abatement, but none of the other councilors would second his motion to do so.
Martin pointed to past commercial development efforts made by the city, like the land sale made to Troy Haney last spring to develop condominiums on Glenn Street.
“This is commercial development,” Martin emphasized. “Why just hang on to this for three more years, and then we take an empty lot for tax purposes, when we could have a business going there?”
While the councilors deliberated the precedent potentially set by abating two years’ back taxes, City Manager Austin Bleess outlined the legality of the situation.
“Councilor McDonough pointed out (the law) which reads ‘the municipal officers may not grant an abatement to correct an error in the valuation of a property.’ If the claim is that it’s an error of evaluation of the property, it appears that a state statute says that an abatement may not be eligible in this case,” Bleess said.
Councilor David Genthner asked if the Corbins had exhausted the capabilities of the Board of Assessors in resolving the matter, and City Assessor Penny Thompson explained that she didn’t think the board would be keen on granting an exception for not taking the necessary action required of taxpayers seeking an abatement.
“In this case, the elder Corbins would have gotten a notification just like we all did in 2012, the new numbers for the valuation. You can see on the card, there’s a big jump between 2011 and 2012 like a lot of us saw after the revaluation,” Thompson explained. “They didn’t come to the office in 2012 to dispute their valuation, and we all have 185 days to do it. Then 2013 comes around, they didn’t do it then.”
Martin vocalized that he could live with adhering to the rules strictly if it was the same people requesting the abatement — and Tracy Corbin agreed.
“I could live with it too if I felt like my in-laws were just being lazy, but I truthfully don’t think they understood,” she said. “I don’t think if I asked them right now they would understand what abatement means.”
Thompson was quick to cite that the majority of citizens of Caribou wouldn’t understand the process for requesting an abatement — and that’s why they should call the assessor’s office.
“That’s why we’re here eight to five every day, to take calls from people and let them ask questions,” she said.
Though the council approved to abate the interest associated with the back taxes, Tracy Corbin said that while she appreciated the gesture, it wouldn’t get the taxes paid anytime soon. She and Chris pointed out that the tax base on the new building would be greater than the requested abatement, plus the potential job growth. Chris also stated that they could sell their house and business right now and move elsewhere.
The council ended up tabling the subject until the June 23 meeting, as was originally suggested by Councilor Philip McDonough early into the discussion.
“I would just assume, if everything was above the board, to go right along with your thought process,” McDonough told the Corbins. “I want to make sure when we do, we’re doing it correctly so nothing comes back on us and I think that’s fair to everybody.”
The next meeting of the Caribou City Council takes place on Monday, June 23 at 7 p.m. in the councilors’ chambers.
