This past weekend I decided to surf the Internet and see if I could find what the town of Windham received for municipal revenue sharing and RSU 14 received for local school aid. I did find what the town is receiving from the state but didn’t find anything on the education side, yet. Luckily fate had someone call to let me know that the Windham town councilors would be setting the property tax levy for the town at their next meeting which was Tuesday. As this column was submitted before that, all I can state is that the tax assessor’s figures show the same figure as the state of Maine does and that’s a good thing.

The council agenda for that council meeting had a worksheet that recommends the town’s tax rate be set at $15.20 per thousand dollars. The proposed tax rate would be 3.6 percent higher than last year’s. What I find interesting is that the school component will increase 2.5 percent, county increase is 4.7 percent and the town’s increase will be 5.8 percent (all approximate) just so you know where the increases come from and how much.

Of course what also matters is what properties are evaluated at and someone I know expected a tax increase of around 4 percent and he received one much higher. I will wait for my next tax bill and see if I should have my house independently appraised. It will be interesting to see what the Windham town councilors do as they have a little wiggle room on setting the tax rate for the town.

Also on the good side is that the town councilors should have voted on setting a contract zone for the area known as Mallison Falls Mill below the prison in Windham and next to the river. I think that it is fantastic that a developer wants to turn most of that area into a residential area, which would be something that was supposed to happen at Keddy Mill and all that ended up happening was a $2 million tax bill for residential property owners minus some sewer fees being collected from a small section of South Windham residents. However I do see a couple of problems for that development to happen and that’s for next week’s column to explain.

On the bad side, mysterious forces in Windham’s town hall seek to increase code enforcement fees. I have yet to see an intelligent discussion of these proposed fees because one of the big impacts of everything asked for in this proposal will be an application fee for some things which does not include paying for the permit. Building permit fees would increase from $525 to $825, a $300 increase if approved. That’s nearly a 60 percent increase in building permit fees just so Windham can be like other towns around us and rob the people blind. I have always been told Mainers like the thought of local control but that the local government wants to be like other towns. The thought of local control is a joke. Let’s be like some towns and do away with the police department and contract with the Cumberland County Sheriff’s Department and I can think of some other things as well. All I know is that the present Code Enforcement Office in Windham has many contractors and other people really riled up, as well as they should be.

On the ugly side I find it totally disgusting that someone put Ku Klux Klan newspapers in a local business over a week ago and of course it became a television news story. I tend to think it came from someone visiting the area this summer but one never knows. I certainly hope that it is only a one-time event in Windham. We have plenty of traffic passing through our town so we don’t need publicity like that. Unfortunately it proves that racism is still around and not just down south as many believe.

Lane Hiltunen of Windham might just be somewhat disgusted with government.