It is now Spring so naturally a few markets are going to go, like the biomass market. Sawmills and people in general use more electricity and steam in the winter and once that lets up with it goes the need for biomass. I am looking at having a local paper mill come here and just clean house wood wise just because I am sick of cutting wood and just want to move on with the sheep farming side of things, but they stopped in and said because I am a a 100% clear cut situation, it all hinges on biomass and right now there is absolutely no market for it despite a State derived subsidy. The Mat Log market is gone too. Normally they tell the log buyer not to buy any more logs, but with Mat Logs they called them up and said we are not even taking the ones you already bought...sorry. This left the log buyers in a lurch with a yard full of hardwood logs that have no place to go. They will take a hit on that. Hemlock Logs is another market that has recently been hit. I sold a nice load of logs last fall for a whopping $350 bucks for 3500 board feet. Yeah..$100 a thousand, Screw that!! So I have been cutting everything but hemlock on my soon-to be-fields in the hopes that the market will come up. It does not look good in the near future anyway. Hemlock pulp...I am not so sure about. The paper company is being kind of dodgy. They are putting in a new paper machine and said they will be buying hardwood mostly, but I already know their hardwood digester will not produce enough for another paper machine. They said they were going to mix in "a little" softwood, but I got the impression that softwood will be hemlock, and more then just "a little". They should, right now hemlock pulp is paying $15 a cord...it costs $40 to get it out of the woods!! Hardwood is being used by all the paper mills so the demand is high. I can't see a paper company putting in a new paper machine based on already high hardwood prices, with a digester that cannot possibly process enough wood per day (2500 cord in case you are curious) when there is absolutely NO outlet for hemlock. The upside of things in a dire market is cedar however. I can actually get more money for this former junk wood then I ever could before. At $4 per post for cedar fence posts, or $100 per cord for small wood, and $500 per thousand for logs, it is my best money-maker. Ash logs are getting pretty high too as the Emerald Ash Borer closes in on us... So kind of a tough time to be cutting wood in Maine right now. If I would have known, I would have cut my wood off 3 years ago and made a killing, but now the market is just dead. I figure my forest produces about $25 per acre per year, and the property taxes here are $28. That just does not add up.
I sure hope the market prices for logs, pulp & Biomass picks up for you LodgedTree , and all the others that have to make payments on all that logging equipment. Never mind household bills.
Have you considered asking for an abatement from your town? From what I know, abatements are granted more than denied
I am already in the American Tree Farm System and of course get taxes taken off for the farm land. The bulk of the property taxes is because of the school system here. It is the largest employer so the majority votes the school budget in. It shows right on the annual report, school enrollment has dropped by 1/3over the last 6 years, yet the budget is higher then it ever was. Even with inflation figured in, it is out of control. I knew the bus mechanic for awhile, and like me he was an old duffer where you fix what is broken. Instead of changing out spring packs, he tore the spring pack apart and changed just the broken spring. At the end of the year his boss was miffed because of the mentality of, "if you don't use it, you lose it for next year." The same for the computer lab, the woman was frugal and was under her budget by $5000, so she had to buy (2) drones to burn up that money. Worse yet was the school in Monroe. Shutting that satellite school down would have saved the taxpayers $750,000 even after the extra busing and everything was factored in. The guy in charge of the school board asked how much it would lower each individual taxpayers bill down by. Since this was $750,000 divided by 10,000 people, it was only $75, so the guy says it is not worth it then. Huh? What part of 3/4 of a million dollars don't you understand guy. Break it down anyway you want, it is still $750,000!! It is just plain out of control.
75% of our property taxes go for the schools in town, we got the same issues here. Life in a small town, we actually get to see where they waste our money.
70% of our taxes here in NJ go for schools. We have the highest property taxes in the nation. Better yet... I don't have any kids.
We were told Maine has the highest taxes, at least per capita. Not arguing with you, just saying what I was told. I should say that my taxes per acre were a bit misleading because that is my total taxes divided by acreage. In other words it includes a couple of houses, a couple of barns and the sawmills, all combined, then divided by the total acreage. I use this figure because I have to figure out what is the better use for my land; sheep farming or forestry. Right now, forestry is the clear loser. It stems from each tree taking 35 years or more to grow to marketable size. With sheep I can get lambs to marketable size in 5 months. At ten sheep per acre, over 35 years, that is a lot of lambs...that is why I am clearing so much land, and where I live, I am not alone. Land is being cleared in record amounts again. It is sad to see nice woodlot go, it breaks my own heart, but such is life. Sadly I see this progressing across the country. The paper industry started here and the mills are old, regulations are high, and it will just follow the path that the paper industry originally spread; the mid-west, the west and then the south east..
I pay 6000 dollars in property taxes on a 3 bedroom 1 bathroom ranch house on 2/3rds of an acre. My town isn't even that bad for property taxes. If I was a town over it would be 7000 to 7500. I bought the house 3 years ago for 207k.
they break my property tax down rough numbers for last year.. total about 4700 dollars... 626 for town rest was school... I like teachers.. many in my family are teachers.. BUT our average teachers salary for a grade school is 58,000! k-8.. there are 180 school days a year.. that's a part time job! the days of teachers coming in early or staying late.. are over.. drive by parking lot 45 minutes before or after and it's empty! sorry rant over!
My wife is a grade school teacher, I wouldn't do her job for what she gets paid, I betcha most people wouldn't/couldn't either or would fail miserably, I have yet to meet a local community school teacher who does it for the money. I saw some numbers somewhere that the average grade school teacher works 3-4 hours a day outside of regular school hours...factor that in. Aside from parents, teachers are arguably the single most influential person in every single young persons life, how much do you think that is worth and what kind of people do you want doing that job? 58K is cheap!
DaveGunter I understand your point it is so much different than when I was in school here avg class size is 13 to 16 kids all grades under 4 have an assistant. yup 58 is cheap.. 2nd grade teacher that retired last year was 102k... avg guy is 40k ish.. 40 hours a week. 2 to 4 weeks vacation.. k-8 school 2 principal 125k each the numbers don't add up..
I was married to a school teacher and know the reality of it. They have contracts and will not work 1 minute past the contract hour. They also are VERY well paid. My ex-wife teaches summer school and to derive her hourly pay, they take her yearly salary, divide it by her contractual hours, and get an hourly rate. She always does summer school because it is $40 an hour! And this is Waldo County, THE poorest county in all of New England and they wonder why. As for extra hours...baaa humbug...I saw how she graded...or the lack thereof. Take a 4 inch stack of homework, grin and then toss it all in the trash. In Maine they are putting in a new law where starting pay is going up by $10,000 a year. It is nuts. Schools are just out of control and teacher salaries and administration costs are a huge part of it. $109,000 for the principals secretary? Come on...$66,000 for the family planner councilor in school...it is out of control.
Thanks for the list, but it only shows property taxes. We have (2) houses in Maine, and (1) in New Hampshire and the difference is, New Hampshire has no state sales tax, nor sate income tax. Maine has both, so combined, we pay a lot higher taxes per capita in Maine. Interestingly enough, its been said our house in New Hampshire is in a town with THE highest taxes. The mill rate is 32.41
