Lewiston Taxpayers Revolt as Revaluation Notices Spark Outrage Ahead of Budget Fight

LEWISTON, Maine – Lewiston taxpayers are furious after receiving new property revaluation notices showing massive increases in assessed values, setting off a political firestorm just as the City Council prepares to take up the city budget.

For many homeowners, the numbers were staggering.

One property owner shared a city notice showing a proposed new assessment of $474,100, up from a 2025 assessment of $198,500. Another resident said their reassessment “MORE than tripled,” warning that if the city’s mill rate remains near $20, their tax bill could jump by $2,571.

The notices have triggered immediate backlash from residents who say the city failed to adequately warn homeowners, failed to communicate clearly with elderly residents and working families, and is now asking taxpayers to absorb the consequences of years of delay, poor planning, and reckless spending.

The anger is now moving from social media and email inboxes to City Hall.

Residents are organizing a “No Taxation Without Representation Rally/Protest” outside Lewiston City Hall on Tuesday May 5th at 5:30 p.m., the same evening taxpayers are being urged to show up and speak out before the city budget is finalized.

The rally is being framed as a taxpayer protest over property taxes, the city budget, and a city government that many residents say has stopped listening.

“Lewiston cannot keep squeezing the tax base while expecting silence in return,” one post circulating online stated. “This reevaluation is going to crush our elderly & our middle class the hardest.”

The revaluation is the city’s first full revaluation of all real property since 1988. City notices sent to property owners state that the revaluation was intended to make assessments fair and equitable after decades in which some properties rose in value more than others.

But the rollout has left many residents alarmed, confused, and angry.

The city notice warns homeowners not to apply the current 2025 mill rate to the proposed new assessment and notes that the proposed value does not include exemptions or credits. But for taxpayers staring at assessment increases of two, three, or more times their previous values, that warning has done little to calm fears that higher taxes are coming.

The frustration exploded Tuesday morning in an email to city leaders titled “On the Great Revaluation Bungle.”

Ward One resident Maura Murphy wrote that while most people understand a revaluation had to happen, the hardship created by the process and the failure to communicate it properly belong squarely with City Hall.

“While everyone knows that revaluation had to happen, and that the extreme, decades-long delay is not the fault of the current City Council, Administrator or employees, navigating foreseeable difficulties and mitigating hardship most certainly is the City’s responsibility, and that has been a failure,” Murphy wrote.

Murphy said the city’s first major failure was its refusal to send paper letters earlier in the process to homeowners, many of whom are elderly and do not rely on social media for important information.

She argued that basic notice could have been included with existing city mailings, such as water bills or tax bills, giving residents more time to prepare for the financial impact.

Instead, Murphy wrote, residents were left to deal with confusion, fear, and uncertainty.

She also criticized the city for expecting residents to allow people with lanyards into their homes during the assessment process, saying that was a serious ask in a city where many residents are already concerned about crime and fragmentation.

Murphy further accused city officials of failing to properly inform property owners about relief programs, including the Homestead Exemption, which had an April 1 application deadline.

“There are many people who were, and probably still are, unaware of the Homestead Exemption,” Murphy wrote.

She said some residents had previously been told the program was not being implemented and therefore continued to believe it was no longer available.

“The fact that the Homestead Exemption had been reimplemented should have been communicated to all property owners,” Murphy wrote. “Yet another communication failure.”

Murphy urged the city to delay implementation of tax bills tied to the revaluation until every eligible property owner has had an opportunity to apply for the Homestead Exemption or any other relief program.

Her email closed with a warning about the kind of residents who may be hit hardest: long-time Lewiston homeowners, including elderly residents who built lives in the city and are already barely making ends meet.

“These people are nameless and faceless to newcomers in City leadership, but we Lewiston natives know them as one of the last generations of citizens who built Lewiston into the best it ever became,” Murphy wrote.

The revaluation fight is now colliding directly with the city budget.

Residents are demanding that city officials cut spending before passing a budget that could compound the burden on property owners already facing sharply higher assessed values.

One resident wrote online that it is time for the city to make “deeper cuts” before homeowners are pushed to the breaking point.

Others warned that the city cannot continue raising costs while expecting working families, elderly residents, and people living in generational homes to simply absorb the hit.

City Councilor Bret Martel said in a post to the Lewiston Matters Facebook group that he had been “bombarded all day” with emails, messages, calls, and texts from residents who received their new home assessments.

“THANK YOU!!!!! PLEASE KEEP THEM COMING!!!” Martel wrote.

Martel said he has been fighting for Lewiston taxpayers from his council seat and vowed to continue doing so.

“The reckless spending needs to stop, city leaders have known this has been coming for 3 years,” Martel wrote.

He said the budget has not yet been voted on and argued that the city could lower taxes if councilors were willing to make difficult choices.

“We could lower taxes if we really wanted to as a body,” Martel wrote. “Tough decisions need to be made……. Immediately!”

The taxpayer revolt is the latest major crisis for a City Council already battered by controversy and public distrust.

Lewiston residents have spent months raising concerns about shootings, crime, fraud, and public safety. The city has also faced repeated criticism from victims and families connected to the Oct. 25, 2023, Lewiston mass shooting, who have accused local officials of failing to treat their concerns with urgency and respect.

City Hall has seen tense public comment fights, complaints about barriers between residents and elected officials, and frustration from survivors and family members who say they have been ignored, limited, or dismissed while trying to speak publicly about issues tied to the shooting and its aftermath.

Now, homeowners are opening assessment notices that make them wonder whether they can afford to stay in the city at all.

For critics of the council, the revaluation mess is not an isolated mistake. It is another example of a city government that too often appears reactive, dismissive, and disconnected from the people who pay the bills.

Residents say they are being asked to fund a growing city budget while they worry about crime, shootings, fraud, public disorder, rising costs, poor handling of the Lewiston Shooting victims and families, and local government that has not earned their confidence.

The result is a combustible budget season.

Taxpayers are organizing. Councilors are being flooded with messages. Residents are preparing to show up at City Hall. And the city’s long-delayed revaluation has become a flashpoint for a much larger fight over spending, accountability, and trust.

Lewiston officials may argue that the revaluation was necessary after nearly four decades without a full update.

But for homeowners who just watched their assessments double or triple, that explanation is not enough.

They want answers.

They want cuts.

And they want City Hall to remember who ultimately pays for every decision it makes.