NORWAY — When the select board meets Tuesday night, members are scheduled to take up a discussion and vote on the municipal tax commitment, stepping off a recent controversial property tax revaluation.
At the board’s last regular meeting on Sept. 17, where every chair was full and people spilled into the hallway to listen to the discussion, the board faced blistering criticism of the property valuation process and the results, with multiple calls to delay implementation of the revaluation for at least another year.
Matthew Glatz, who lives on King Street, told the board that as a result of the recent valuation his property — which he purchased in 2021 — is three times the value he paid for it, or $349,015 compared to the purchase price of $112,000. He challenged both how long the valuation took and the process implemented by the contracted assessor John E. O’Donnell & Associates.
He also questioned why the valuations, which included property visits, were completed in just 162 days, which he said was inadequate considering the number of properties in town.
Board Chairwoman Sarah Carter, seeing the packed room, asked people to keep their comments succinct, or said she would need to limit comments to 3 minutes per person. Many of the residents who spoke, though, disregarded that time and the 90-minute public comment period ultimately became a whole-room discussion about the accuracy of the valuations.
The property evaluation was completed in August and letters were supposed to have gone out to property owners with the new values. Many people said they hadn’t received their letters yet, and those who had were shocked by the new valuations. Carter acknowledged the town hadn’t received all of the required information either, which it needs to do before voting on the tax commitment.
Carter and Selectman Russell Newcomb both mentioned they hadn’t received their letters, and Newcomb was aware of at least one letter that went to Oslo, the capital of Norway, rather than the town. Carter suggested that some letters may have gone directly to banks if property owners pay their taxes through escrow, “so there are a lot of reasons you may not have gotten a letter,” she said.
The letters, dated Aug. 23, contained steps for property owners to challenge O’Donnell’s valuations, which included in-person meetings at the town office on Sept. 1, 2 or 3, but many people said they weren’t even aware those meetings were taking place.
Dave Cox, who lives on Waterford Road, challenged what he suggested were competing interests for O’Donnell, who does property valuations for dozens of towns in Maine but “also assesses properties for bank loans. His job is to keep everybody’s property values as high as possible,” Cox said.
He told the select board that should it choose to adopt the new valuations and commit taxes based on those values, “you have the ability to break the town.”
Troy Ripley agreed, urging the board to pause and review the valuations. “Once you commit the taxes that ship has sailed,” he said. “Please don’t commit the taxes.”
It’s been nearly 20 years since Norway conducted the last full property valuation, which Newcomb said the town coped with by guesstimating slight adjustments to the mill rate each year, but that continuing to do that was not sustainable.
Carter agreed, saying the board could choose to continue using last year’s valuation and increase this year’s mill rate, or accept this year’s revaluation and decrease the mill rate.
When several people in the audience started talking over each other, Town Manager Jill Lathan interrupted and asked people to settle down. “We live in a divided country and that division sometimes is based on how people are affected by things that are going on in their daily lives,” she said, and asked people not to “mirror the division and threats against people who are just trying to do the best thing they can for this town.”
Lathan assured residents that members of the select board “know the aches and conflicts in this room,” and are committed to their responsibilities to taxpayers. “Don’t make assumptions about what they may do or not do,” she said.
Norm Gosselin, who appeared more and more agitated as the conversation continued on, said “a lot of people in this room are going to have to hire lawyers” to contest the valuations.
In an effort to reassure him, Carter said the board “heard a lot of reasons in this room about why we should pause. Why the process feels flawed. Why it doesn’t feel accurate,” but she urged people to stick to that conversation. “It’s not helpful in this conversation to be threatened,” she said.
Danielle Wadsworth, who is vice chair of the board, also tried to assure residents the board wasn’t going to rush the process, noting “I have some questions for (O’Donnell) based on some of the things I’ve heard tonight.” She said she would like to get answers to her questions before accepting the valuations or adopting the tax commitment.
A number of people asked to see O’Donnell’s math for individual properties, and how the firm set valuations, but O’Donnell uses proprietary software and has not shared the numbers with town officials or property owners.
Several people asked the board to take a vote of no confidence in O’Donnell’s work, but Carter said that wasn’t appropriate since they haven’t seen the final figures yet and can’t say whether they have confidence or not until they see those documents.
Gosselin, again talking over someone, said to the select board, “it seems like you guys are getting into this time crunch. Don’t let time make you make bad decisions. Okay? Please don’t do that.”
Carter acknowledged him, but reminded him the town has been talking about this revaluation for six years or longer, and at some point has to make a decision on valuations and the mill rate. “We can’t totally trash the reval that we’ve had,” she said, but agreed there were reasons to sit down and talk with O’Donnell about property owner concerns.
“We can’t just let indecision be our decision,” she said.
In response to multiple requests to delay sending out tax bills and their due date, Carter said the select board did not have the authority to change dates set by voters at the annual town meeting and would have to schedule a special town meeting to do that.
In June, voters set the due date for the first payment of taxes on Nov. 15, 2026; the second payment is due May 16, 2027.
The board’s meeting to talk about the tax commitment will be held at 6 p.m. on Tuesday, Sept. 29, at the town office.
O’Donnell has posted the proposed valuations on the firm’s website. The data is searchable by owner name, property location, and tax map.
