One of Gov. Paul LePage’s final legislative acts of his tenure as governor was affixing his signature to a bill that originated from his office, but that he now calls “horrible.”
The governor this year made it a top legislative priority to pass a bill that would add new requirements for towns and cities to follow before they can foreclose on the homes of residents 65 or older for failure to pay property taxes.
The bill, as LePage proposed it, would have added a requirement that municipal officials help homeowners facing foreclosure apply for tax abatements, and discharge the lien if the homeowner is eligible. Municipalities, under the original proposal, would also have had to notify homeowners facing foreclosure that they have the option of pursuing a reverse mortgage. The bill would have required that an independent broker — not the municipality — sell the foreclosed property. And it would have also required that the homeowner be able to recoup proceeds from the sale beyond what he or she owes the municipality in unpaid taxes, interest and fees.
It was never apparent that the problem LePage was trying to solve was actually widespread. In pursuing one of his top legislative priorities, he cited only one anecdote and no statistics to prove the situation was a common one. Yet he consistently cast the legislation in grand terms and as part of a genuine effort “to protect our elderly Mainers and to help them stay in their homes.”
The bill LePage signed lacked the provision that would require that municipalities use a real estate agent to sell the property — and, presumably, sell the property at the maximum market price. Instead, senior homeowners caught up in the municipal foreclosure process would have the option of requiring that the town or city use a real estate broker.
And the bill that will become law doesn’t require that municipalities return any extra proceeds from the sale — beyond the back taxes they’re owed — to the homeowner.
The governor told Maine Public Radio the changes made his legislation “a horrible, horrible bill,” but that he had no choice other than to sign it. “At least it gives some lawyers, at least a fighting chance,” he said.
In his weekly radio address released Thursday, LePage said lawmakers had failed “to make our elderly a priority,” continuing to cast his bill as a consequential measure.
But if a bill that the governor himself described as “simple” and “innocuous” in the same radio address is the extent of LePage’s effort to “make our elderly a priority,” the governor hasn’t exactly prioritized seniors.
Nearly three years have passed since voters authorized the state to borrow $15 million to fund construction of affordable senior housing. Yet LePage has, with no good explanation, stood in the way of the bonds’ release, delaying the chance for seniors to move into safe, affordable housing units.
The governor has also stood in the way of efforts to keep municipal property taxes low.
He has attempted to eliminate municipal revenue sharing, a program mandated by state law that sends towns and cities a small share of the state’s sales and income tax revenue. If successful, that move would have eliminated a revenue source on which towns and cities rely. Without it, towns and cities would have to make up for it with higher property taxes, cuts to services or both.
Property taxes that elderly homeowners can’t afford are precisely why such homeowners would fall behind in paying their property taxes and have their homes foreclosed upon. It seems it would have been a better use of LePage’s eight years as governor to try to rein in municipal property taxes. Instead, he fought for precisely the opposite.
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