A commission convened by the Governor and the legislative leadership (LD1636) to draft and introduce legislation concerning costs in the Unorganized Territories is now taking up a new agenda to impose higher property taxes on most property owners in the Unorganized Territories, including Trescott.

The planned new property taxes are intended to subsidize spending in other, higher taxed cities and towns. Advocates of the new taxes say that when people visit other towns they use "infrastructure"; they argue that regional taxes should therefore be imposed on owners of land in unorganized territories to pay general "indirect services" attributed to "cultural centers" and public works projects by local officials in what are now being called "service center communities". At least for now, only unorganized townships are intended to be subjected to the new regional property taxes. Large landowners such as paper companies, who have vociferously opposed the new tax, could be exempt.

As explained in an October 2004 presentation by the Maine Revenue Service to the Trescott Historical Society, property taxes in the UT are assessed in accordance with the costs of services provided or coordinated by state and county government throughout the UT. Most of these costs are for public education tuition, but also include fire fighting and a few other services. According to the latest Unorganized Territory Annual Report (2004, p7) the UT does not receive state subsidies for public education. Nevertheless, the minimal services in the UT have long led to lower than average property taxes by Maine standards. Several small Maine towns have deorganized or are attempting to deorganize, at least partly to avoid state-mandated costs imposed on municipalities.

Despite the minimal services in the UT, advocates of the new regional property tax call the lower tax rates an "inequity" that needs to be addressed. Maine imposes the highest state and local taxes per income in the US, and the relatively lower property taxes in the UT are often resented. According to reports to date, a new regional tax would be implemented by siphoning taxes from new development, new construction or renovations – leaving property owners, other than the possibly exempted large land companies, to make up the difference through higher mill rates in the UT. The cost of state and county operations in the UT would not go down and no new services, such as road plowing or timely police response would be added.

The legislative commission, established June 23, 2005 to propose legislation on costs in the UT, was originally scheduled to complete its work by December 7, but an extension is expected in order to incorporate the new regional tax proposal.

According to Bill Skinner of the Washington County branch of the Unorganized Territories Property Tax Division, a state revaluation is also expected to take effect in Trescott next year. This is expected to result in further shifts in property taxes onto owners of relatively higher value land such as in coastal Trescott. The 2005 UT property tax mill rate in Washington County, including Trescott, which deorganized in 1945, is $9.19 per thousand.

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