Defeat LDs 448 and 451!

Senior citizens on fixed incomes struggle to pay rising property taxes. Consumers have many protections if a foreclosure involves a mortgage; when the bank forecloses, it sells the house and pays the homeowner any remaining equity after all debts are paid.

However, in a municipal foreclosure, when a senior citizen owns the home outright, most of those protections disappear.  Last year Governor LePage fought to make it harder for towns to sell a senior citizen’s home and, if the town did end up foreclosing, he fought to make sure the home was sold for market value and the balance of the equity returned to the homeowner after taxes are paid

This makes the town whole while providing the senior with the rest of the home’s equity. The senior can avoid becoming homeless because they have the rest of the money from the sale of their home.

Here’s the story of Ruby in Caribou who was saved from being homeless when she wrote to Governor LePage and a good samaritan paid her property taxes only days before her home was to be seized by the city.

These bill sponsors are trying to reverse the few protections passed last year because the law is “burdensome” to towns.  It’s heinous when lobbyists and politicians argue that it’s bad to burden a town, but it’s okay to throw seniors out of their homes.

These bill sponsors and local officials think foreclosing on our elderly is a good way to increase revenue. Contact your legislators and tell them to help our elderly stay in their homes. A vote in favor of these bills is a vote to allow towns to foreclose on the elderly, sell their house for just the amount of taxes owed, and not return any money to the senior whose home represented their only savings. Maine is better than this! We don’t let banks do this, why should we let cities and towns?

This story by reporter Amy Calder describes the issue: Elderly couple’s eviction from Albion home draws LePage’s ire

At the work session on this bill on March 7 the Taxation Committee voted unanimously to not pass LD 448 but carry over LD 451 to the second part of the legislative session in 2020 so they can collect data on whether the changes were helping seniors. We will continue to monitor this issue and the action next year.

LD 451 An Act To Repeal the Recently Enacted Changes to the Law Governing Tax Lien Foreclosure