Corinna Road Debate

At the Corinna Town Meeting the hottest topic by far was the condition of the roads and how to fix them. An article was proposed asking that a two million dollar bond loan be taken out to finance the repair and reconstruction of a number of roads in town. As would be expected when such a large sum of money is on the line, a long debate ensued.

One of the major concerns the citizens had regarded the 'mill rate' of the town. The mill rate is a tax imposed on property. To be more exact, it is a tax of one thousandth (.001) of a dollar for every dollar a property is worth. For example, if a property was worth one hundred fifty thousand dollars and the mill rate was ten, the owner of that property would have to pay one thousand five hundred dollars in taxes that year.

At the end of last year, the mill rate for the town was thirteen. This year, however, it will be five mills higher. Two of these mills are from the two million dollar amount that was accepted for road repair. This upset some of the people. Another interesting thing that came up at the meeting is whether or not it would be better to repair the roads over time. It was decided that it would be worse to do that, because if it was done in small increments the prices would be greater (due to price increases in labor and materials). In the end, a secret ballot vote was taken and the outcome was that the article was accepted.

Sources:
http://www.investopedia.com/terms/m/millrate.asp