A citywide revaluation in Lewiston — the first full revaluation since 1988 — is on track to be implemented next year.

According to City Assessor William Healey, the city’s consultant Tyler Technologies is still in the data collection phase, during which the assessing team compiles and updates property information. Then it will move to the sales review phase this fall, when the consultant will look at recent property sales data.

By the spring of 2026, new valuation notices will be sent to taxpayers, who will then have an opportunity to speak with assessors with any questions.

The new values will be used to calculate tax bills for fiscal year 2027, which will be sent out in August and due Sept. 15, 2026.

While the assessing team has been quietly plugging along this year, the process hasn’t been entirely seamless. When Tyler Technologies began collecting data last year, a majority of property owners declined to allow interior home inspections, and the city responded by changing its strategy.

The issue spoke to the often controversial, anger-inducing and misunderstood process of revaluations, and at a time when dozens of Maine municipalities are reassessing properties due to high sales prices.

The impending revaluation has played a role in budget deliberations as officials look to avoid a large increase in property taxes at the same time that new property values come online. However, officials say they also continuously hear misconceptions about revaluations and how they are conducted.

What is a revaluation, and why do communities need them? 

Municipalities need to raise revenue to pay for schools, roads, General Assistance and other services. Almost always, the biggest share of that revenue is property tax.

At its most basic level, a revaluation is a rebalancing to ensure property owners are paying their “fair share” of municipal taxes, with higher-value properties owing more and lower-value properties owing less.

Municipalities are not doing this of their own accord. The Constitution of the State of Maine requires “all taxes upon real and personal estate, assessed by authority of this State, shall be apportioned and assessed equally according to the just value thereof.”

This means communities are required to collect taxes based on the true market value of properties. And since market values change over time, municipalities must periodically reassess property values.

The city’s revaluation website states that because Lewiston has not conducted a full revaluation since 1988, “inequities in taxation may now be occurring.”

“The reassessment is being conducted to address these inequities and ensure that each property owner pays only their fair share of the tax burden; no more, no less,” it states.

How does a revaluation work?

A full revaluation requires a community to hire a professional firm to reassess every property in the municipal limits and record data points on the properties, like home additions or the quality of construction. The firm will also collect data on acreage, topography and sales as of April 1 of that year.

In many cases, the process takes years. Firms like Tyler Technologies either conduct on-site property inspections or collect updated property data through mailers. For its latest revaluation, Portland used both Geographic Information Systems data as well as mailers.

Property owners usually have the ability to ask questions of the assessing firm. They can also appeal their tax bill if they feel their property was valued inaccurately.

What happens if a municipality does not do a revaluation?

The general guidance is that municipalities should pay for a professional revaluation about every 10 years to make sure taxed values keep up with increasing market values. But revaluations can be unpopular and are often put off for much longer.

To help enforce regular revaluations, the Maine State Legislature enacted a law in 1975 that requires a community’s properties be taxed at  least 70% of the state-defined market value, which is determined by area property sales and other factors.

If municipalities do not meet that threshold, residents’ homestead exemptions can be affected.

The state offers homestead exemptions to permanent residents to excuse up to $25,000 of a home’s value from being taxed by the community. But that $25,000 is adjusted to the local property tax assessment ratio of a municipality.

So, for example, if a community were assessing its properties at 70% of the market value established by the state, residents living in the municipality would only be eligible to receive 70% of the $25,000 homestead exemption.

Lewiston has seen its homestead exemption dip in recent years due to being below the 100% ratio. For fiscal year 2024, Lewiston’s certified ratio was 73%, which means that on average, the city is assessing properties at 73% of their full value as assessed by the state.

Will my property taxes increase after a revaluation?

Not necessarily.

Healey has said it’s typical following a revaluation for about a third of property owners to see tax bills increase, a third to stay the same and a third to see their tax bills decrease.

While many taxpayers seem to believe that cities are just trying to fill the coffers with more money, revaluations don’t generate additional revenue — they only redistribute the property tax burden. Tyler Technologies explains reassessments as “revenue neutral.”

The revaluation process is a shifting of the tax burden, and communities do not suddenly and punitively collect millions more in taxes after a revaluation has increased some property values. Instead, municipalities raise the amount of money they intend to spend.

To determine how much to charge each property owner, each community calculates its tax rate.

Officials first establish how much the municipality will need to spend during that fiscal year, including required contributions to local school districts and the county government.

The community will then subtract known revenues — including grants and, sometimes, funds leftover from the previous year — from the total expenditure amount to determine how much the municipality must raise in taxes. For fiscal 2026 in Lewiston, that number is $75.8 million of a $185.5 million budget.

The municipality then divides the amount of needed revenue by the total value of all property in the community, including up to 5% of wiggle room for emergencies.

This number is then multiplied by 1,000 to create a taxable amount per $1,000 of assessed property value, resulting in the tax rate that property owners pay.

For example, the tax bill on a property assessed at $250,000 in Lewiston, which has a tax rate of $32.78 per $1,000 of assessed valuation, would be $8,195, with no exemptions.

For years, city officials in Lewiston have debated the need for a revaluation, with some arguing that the high tax rate is an impediment to economic development, while others have looked to avoid a large increase in taxes.

Revaluations typically lead to a significant decrease in the property tax rate. However, residents in areas where home values have increased significantly can often see the largest value swings, causing their own individual property tax bills to rise significantly as well.

Staff Writer Ethan Horton contributed to this report.