The Big Lie in PPH story deconstructed, Pt. 1

By Kim Ervin-Tucker, Esq.

Created by Becca Hoskins

In a Portland Press Herald story published on New Year’s Day, former Belfast City Council member Mike Hurley — still under the influence of the Big Gulp of Nordic Aquafarms Inc. Kool-Aid he ingested in 2018 — said: “If this wasn’t the biggest thing in a thousand years in terms of tax benefits, do you think I would really support it? What was in it for me, for the city? Nothing but a pain.”

So let’s look at the FACTS about the windfall of tax benefits that Nordic has brought to Belfast City taxpayers so far to see why Diamond Mike is still all in for this project.

Nordic bought the land for its project from the Belfast Water District in March 2022. That land had previously been exempted from taxation because it was owned by a quasi-governmental entity, so purchase by Nordic must have been a real boon for taxpayers, right? Well, not so much.

You see, Nordic did not want the liability for the lower dam on the Little River, which was declared a significant public safety risk by the Corps of Engineers in the 1970s. The dam has not improved much since that time because of the Water District’s failure to make necessary repairs for decades after that declaration. So, the Water District still owns the lower dam. Curiously, in assessing the value of the land retained by the Water District, the city attributed most of the assessed value of the Water District property to the dam when the Nordic acquisition was closed.

Prior to Nordic’s purchase, the Water District land was valued at $635,300 and the structures on the property (including the dam and offices) were valued at $3,231,900, but no taxes were generated by the property because it was owned by the Water District and therefore tax-exempt.

Pursuant to the 1-30-2018 deal hatched by Belfast Water District, the city and Nordic, in 2022 Nordic acquired 26.9 acres of Water District land, including the portion of the Water District’s property on which the offices and parking lot were situated. Belfast Water District retained the 0.06-acre portion of land on which the lower dam is located and the city paid $100,000 (in taxpayer funds) to the Water District to acquire the 19.8 acres, designated as the “Waterfront Parcel” on which the public walking trails are located.

Did Nordic’s acquisition result in significant tax benefits to Belfast taxpayers? No.

The city placed most of the assessed value of the structures on the property on the dam – something up to now the city and the Water District described as a “liability” it was seeking to shed (despite the public safety risks posed by failing to seek funding to fix the dangerous condition of this infrastructure). Thus, after the 2022 sale to Nordic, the 0.06 acres of land with the lower dam on it was valued at $9,600 and the dam structure was valued at $2.9 million.

In contrast, the 13.9 acres conveyed to Nordic with the offices, garages and parking lot (Belfast Tax Map 29, Lot 039) was assessed at $508,000, and the structures, including usable office space and two garages, at $331,000. An additional 13 acres (actually 12.5 acres) of undeveloped land was assessed at $20,500 (Tax Map 29, Lot 039-1); Nordic paid no taxes on these parcels in 2022 and only paid $16,898.07 in taxes on Lot 29-039 and $412 for Lot 29-039-1 in 2023.

Map of lots 29-039 and 29-039-1.

Note that the 12.5-acre parcel is currently the subject of a lawsuit filed by abutters challenging improper efforts by the city of Belfast and Nordic to surreptitiously remove deed restrictions that “run with the land” on that parcel, imposed by the state of Maine by deed in 1973, to protect this land for the protection of a municipal water shed. Those restrictions prohibit any buildings being placed on the parcel and require it be kept in its natural condition (wooded and with wetlands). (See Mabee and Grace, et al. v. City of Belfast, et al., Waldo County Superior Court Docket No. CV-2023-6.)

The 19.8-acre waterfront parcel, formerly owned by the Water District, continues to be tax-exempt, generating no taxes due from Nordic, even though an easement, drafted by Nordic’s counsel, granted to Nordic by the Water District on 3-11-2022 (BWD-to-Nordic deed recorded in the Waldo County Registry of Deeds at Book 4776, Page 210), gave all rights to develop this parcel to Nordic – including the right to exclude the public from the Walking Trails and to denude this shoreland of all vegetation and place industrial infrastructure on it, including an industrial pump house. The easement was executed by the Water District’s outgoing director just three days before the Water District conveyed this land to the city in exchange for payment, by the city, of $100,000 in taxpayer funds. That money was used to move the Water District offices.

Thus, Nordic has all the use of this environmentally sensitive land for industrial development, without paying a penny in taxes on it. By the city holding title to it, the land remains tax-exempt. And, rather than preserving the Walking Trails in perpetuity for the public, Nordic was given the right to exclude anyone from this property, even though it is owned by the city.

In addition, Nordic paid $650,000 to the Eckrotes to convey their parcel (Belfast Tax Map 29, Lot 36) ostensibly to the city of Belfast “for a park.” However, before the city had even recorded the deed from the Eckrotes in the Waldo County Registry of Deeds on 7-16-2021, the mayor had signed a deed conveying the Eckrote parcel to Nordic — delivered to Nordic’s attorneys on 7-15-2021 by then-City Attorney Bill Kelly. Nordic and the city have left this 7-15-2021 deed unrecorded — sitting in a desk drawer at Nordic’s counsel and registered agent Joanna Tourangeau’s office at Drummond Woodsum.

However, make no mistake, under the express terms in Sections 1 and 3(C) of the 7-9-2021 Purchase and Sale Agreement between the City of Belfast and Nordic, the 7-15-2021 deed conveyed the Eckrotes’ lot (Belfast Tax Map 29, Lot 36) to Nordic with the conveyance becoming effective on 8-23-2021. [This will be more fully explained in Part 2.] However, the city has falsely exempted this property from the tax rolls, claiming it is “municipal property.” Thus, Nordic failed to pay property taxes on this property in 2022 and 2023, at a loss of approximately $14,500 in tax revenue to Belfast citizens.

Finally, Nordic acquired two other properties from private landowners on the west side of Route 1 for its project (Belfast Tax Map 4, Lot 12-A-1 and Lot 104). Because the city increased the assessed value of both parcels after Nordic’s acquisition, this purchase resulted in a net increase in taxes for these parcels. How much of an increase? Lot 104’s assessed value increased from $20,100 to $61,400, with a net increase in taxes paid of $804. Nordic’s acquisition of Lot 12-A-1 resulted in additional tax payments from Nordic of $2,915 in 2021, $2,835.50 in 2022 and $2,663.25 in 2023.

In sum, since acquiring the property for its project, Nordic has paid $25,723.42 in property taxes for the property related to the project, and failed to pay over $14,000 in taxes it should have paid on the former Eckrote Lot — meaning a net gain of taxes to Belfast citizens from Nordic of $11,229.82.

Is this what Diamond Mike Hurley considers: “the biggest thing in a thousand years in terms of tax benefits”??? Seems like the only beneficiary of this scheme is Nordic Aquafarms Inc. at the expense of the taxpayers of Belfast.

So, after looking at the facts, can anyone explain why a former Belfast city councilor is still promoting this boondoggle of a project in the Portland Press Herald? Or explain why the PPH feels the need to run such a puff-piece on New Year’s Day with quotes about mythical tax benefits of the Nordic project that Tax Commitment Books, publicly available online, show have no basis in fact or reality?