Give 'Em Enough Rope: Camden Biz Owners Push Higher Taxes on

AMG Editor: I wonder when was the last time the Camden business community rallied as hard to improve Maine's overall biz tax climate.
Camden HeraldCommercial boat owners face Camden tax rollsBy DAVID GRIMA April 10, 2003
Lobster boats, windjammers subject to long-ignored business equipment tax CAMDEN - The Town of Camden is preparing to send lobstermen and other commercial boat owners a piece of mail they have not seen for years: a tax bill.Owners of commercial vessels have not been required to pay the town personal property taxes on their business equipment, including lobster traps, but now those tax-free days are over, it seems.A number of shore-based Camden business owners have complained to staff at the town office, arguing that if they have to pay personal property taxes then so should lobstermen and anybody else who makes a living on the water.Camden Assessor's Agent Judy Mathiau said last week she has no choice but to agree with the 500 land-based businesses in Camden that have been paying this tax for years.Those businesses currently have business equipment worth $21,611,000, providing the town with $400,000 in tax revenues this fiscal year alone. Mathiau is not yet able to say how much extra value and additional taxes will be discovered afloat on the harbor.Blame BoothbayMathiau said the request to tax commercial boat owners came from Camden business owners who had heard of the practice from a coastal town further south, Boothbay Harbor.Shore-based businesses there began demanding that the Town of Boothbay Harbor tax its lobstermen and other commercial boat owners. Reports about this action have spread up the coast and sparked interest in Camden, Mathiau said. Boothbay's lobstermen are "very irate," she said, and their counterparts in Camden are not particularly pleased either.In towns along the Maine coast assessors have traditionally avoided levying personal property tax on fishermen and other watercraft operators because the state has provided no guidance about how to do it, Mathiau explained.Some lobstermen argue they already pay a tax on their traps to the state, she said, but when she investigated this claim it seemed to hold about as much water as a lobster trap. The state does charge a trap fee, but it is specifically not a tax, she learned. Therefore traps, which are business equipment just as much as a cash register or a forklift truck, are subject to the town-levied personal property tax.So are nets, cell phones and any kind other of fishing or dragging gear used in the pursuit of business. And it is not just lobstermen whose gear has appeared in front of the cross-hairs. Passenger windjammer operators are liable to be taxed on their cooking equipment, mattresses, tables, chairs, pots and pans, and so forth.However, lobster boats, windjammers, tour boats and other commercial craft are not subject to the personal property tax. Nor are items of equipment that allow them to function as boats, such as navigation gear. Mathiau said vessels and navigation gear are already taxed through the boat excise system. What the town has not been taxing, until now, is equipment used for business purposes.Making listsMathiau is making lists of commercial boat owners liable for personal property taxes in Camden.A list of 37 commercial vessels or owners is presently on the agent's desk, and she is checking each one to determine its legal place of business. The information has been assembled from various sources, such as the town's list of fishing float permits and the Camden-Rockport-Lincolnville Chamber of Commerce's website.Not all boats operating out of Camden Harbor will be liable for personal property taxation in Camden, however, since the determining factor is the legal residence of the owner or business.For example, the commercial passenger schooner Mary Day has long been considered a member of Camden's windjammer fleet. The owner, Camden Navigation Company, pays the boat excise tax in Camden even though sole company shareholder Thomas Norton lives at 15 Pond Road in Searsmont, because the company's legal address is 8 Thomas St., Camden.But the boat itself and the business that operates it, Penobscot Windjammer Company, are separate corporate entities. Penobscot Windjammer is legally located at 797 Gurneytown Road in Appleton.Therefore, Mathiau said, Camden cannot levy personal property taxes against the business equipment aboard Mary Day, because it belongs to an Appleton corporation. The Town of Appleton can levy the tax, however.Actual business locations are determined by the address on file with the Secretary of State's Bureau of Corporations.One Camden lobsterman has been paying personal property tax for years, Arthur Andrews, owner of the Captain Andy's retail lobster business on Washington Street.Mathiau sent letters to other Camden-based commercial boat owners last month, asking them to fill out a personal property declaration form. Completed forms have to be filed at her office by May 1, so she can calculate the necessary tax for 2003-4. Mathiau can be reached for questions at 236-3353.Lobstermen resident in Lincolnville might not face this new tax, even if they operate out of Camden. The part-time assessors' agent in that town, Jim Elmore, said "Lincolnville, to my knowledge, has no plans at this time to assess personal property such as fishing gear... I work for the Board of Assessors, and have received no such direction from them. Given the limits on my time in Lincolnville, I am not convinced such a pursuit would yield much return to the Town." ©The Camden Herald 2003 http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=7676280&BRD=1470&PAG=461&dept_id=188279&rfi=6