The Bangor Daily News has reported that billionaire Steven Rales has applied to the Town of Mount Desert to build a huge mansion that for most of us, is really incomprehensible. You don't live like that, I don't live like that, and we live here year round, not just visit for a short period of the year.

Yet, rather than looking at it with a twinge of jealousy, if you live in Mount Desert, I think you should be grateful! Consider this? Mitchell Rales' estate is valued by the Town of Mount Desert's assessor at $15,576,200. Steven Rales' two abutting properties right now, land alone, are assessed at $3,907,200. When the property is finished, it's conceivable that with the estimated construction cost of $9.4 million, that it could be assessed at $12.5 million. That means that the two Rales brothers own property assessed at $28 million combined. With a mill rate of $6.78 per thousand, that means the Rales are paying property taxes of $189,840.

Now, the Town of Mount Desert's budget for 2014-15 is $13.7 million. That means the Rales are paying 1.38 percent of the entire town's budget by themselves! And I complain when I have to pay my $2400 tax bill to Bangor :)

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