Former House Democratic Leader Maureen Terry of Gorham scoffed at then-Rep. Billy Bob Faulkingham (R-Winter Harbor) for proposing a 2021 bill to increase Maine’s Homestead Exemption to $50,000 on the basis that “taxation is theft.”
The bill would have increased Maine’s Homestead Exemption from $25,000 to $50,000, thereby lowering the amount of property taxes many Mainers are required to pay.
As Faulkingham was introducing his bill, Rep. Terry could be seen in the Zoom recording of the committee hearing sneering, making faces, and laughing, as if the idea of helping reduce the property taxes was too ridiculous for the Taxation Committee to consider.
Terry probably thought differently when her own property taxes came due for the $350,000 home she owns in Gorham.
According to the Cumberland County Registry of Deeds, Terry was hit with a large municipal lien for unpaid property taxes in Aug. 2021 — just four months after she laughed off Rep. Faulkingham’s suggestion that property taxes were too high.
According to the lien, the town of Gorham took action against Terry in 2022 in order to collect on $2,480.75 in unpaid property taxes.
Again, in 2022, as Terry was campaign for a seat in the Maine House of Representatives, the town of Gorham was once again forced to take action against Terry over a large, unpaid property tax bill.
According to county records, Gorham filed a lien of more than $3,500 against Terry’s property.
Ironically, a $50,000 Homestead Exemption would have considerably decreased the amount of property taxes Terry owed — perhaps to a low enough level where she could have afforded to pay her taxes on time.
Although Terry is not running this year for reelection to the House of Representatives, her husband, Parnell Terry, is running for the same seat.
According to the couples’ financial disclosures, Maureen Terry operates a small business — 3 Daughters Cookie Co. — out of the same address against which the two municipal liens were filed.
Interestingly, in 2022, at the same time Gorham officials were attempting to collect more than $3,500 in unpaid property taxes from Terry, the Democrat pol had applied for and received more than $4,000 in taxpayer funding to buy campaign materials.
Like his wife, Parnell Terry is also running for office this year as a so-called “clean” candidate, meaning he’s applied for and received taxpayer dollars to buy yard signs, bumper stickers, and other campaign supplies.
Campaign finance records indicate that he has received more than $7,500 in taxpayer cash for his campaign.
Regardless of whether Terry succeeds in reclaiming his wife’s seat in the House of Representatives, trouble may still be on the horizon for the Terry family.
That’s because the city of Gorham voted narrowly in June in favor of a $53 million school budget that will cause property taxes in the town to increase by more than nine percent.
While Rep. Terry may have thought it was hilarious for Rep. Faulkingham to suggest property taxes in Maine are too high, she may be wishing she had a $50,000 Homestead Exemption when the next property tax bill hits her mailbox.
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