Our senior citizens and those with disabilities deserve to live and grow old in the comfort of their own homes without worrying that they’ll be unable to stay in them because they can’t afford the property taxes.
This week, I announced a program to give people the peace of mind that they can age safely and securely in their own homes.
Hello, this is Governor Janet Mills and thank you for listening.
Using $3.5 million in funds from the Federal American Rescue Plan, this week we announced the State Property Tax Deferral Program which provides a lifeline to cover the annual property tax bills of eligible Maine people who are aged 65 and older or who are permanently disabled and who cannot afford to pay their property taxes on their principle residence.
You may be eligible if you earn less than $40,000 a year, including your retirement, and have liquid assets below $50,000 (or $75,000 if you’re applying with your spouse). Full eligibility criteria and applications can be found by going online on the Maine Revenue Services website.
Loans must be repaid if the property is sold or becomes part of somebody’s estate.
The State Property Tax Deferral Program is the latest step my Administration has taken to address property taxes, to increase the availability of housing, and to ensure that all Maine people, regardless of age or income, can have a safe, stable place to call home right here in our state.
In 2019, I signed a $15 million senior housing bond that had been approved by Maine voters but had been held up by the previous Administration. In 2020, I signed into law the single largest state investment in housing in Maine’s history and we recently broke ground on a new, major housing project resulting from that law.
To put money back into the pockets of Maine families we’ve also provided other tax relief. We:
- Made an historic investment in Maine public schools, meeting the State’s obligation to pay 55 percent of the cost of K-12 education for the first time in history;
- We increased direct tax relief for 83,000 low-income and middle-income people who were hard hit by the pandemic;
- We fully restored revenue sharing with municipalities to five percent;
- We launched and administered the Local Fiscal Recovery Program that has infused more than $59 million in federal funds into local governments within more than 461 communities;
- We preserved the power of the Earned Income Tax Credit to provide tax relief to middle and low-income Maine families with children;
- We exempted up to $10,200 in unemployment benefits from income tax for the year 2020; and
- We returned more than $149 million of your taxes in financial relief directly to Maine families in 2021.
Well I said last week and I’ll say it again, I think we can give more money back to the people of Maine, and I’ll be working with Democrats, Republicans, and Independents on just how to do that.
You can look for that as part of the supplemental budget I'll be proposing in the coming weeks.
In the meantime, my Administration will continue to work with the Legislature to make sure that every person in Maine has a safe place to call home.
This is Governor Janet Mills and thank you for listening.