The borough tax assessments recently were a shock to property owners, including myself. I am wondering about the way the assessor based his values. Forty years ago, my husband took a piece of property in Moose Valley Estates on a bad debt. Turns out the piece the man deeded was a swamp with no road access or even the possibility of one. We were able to walk through muskeg once in a dry year to look at it and swat bugs. The taxes weren’t high, so my husband ignored the whole thing, but the last few years the assessment went up to $8,900, still not too bad for a widow to pay. I might mention that we tried to sell it. This year my tax assessment went up to $45,000. If it’s worth that much I would like to sell it to someone! I have several pieces of property in that area for sale, but no interest shown. I am still paying taxes for property I can’t sell. If I could sell everything I own in Haines for what the assessments are, I would. Haines is not receptive to industry of any kind except fishing. Bill Thomas is no longer able to bring projects here and most folks ignore the shop-at-home campaigns, so it’s a dying town. The borough, with 78 employees, needs to cut its budget. Each department should take an across-the-board cut and start living in the real world of Haines. Cut taxes and invite industry.
Carol Waldo