In the ongoing debate concerning the excise tax on vehicles, the current methodology being used to determine those excise taxes may be unconstitutional.

Specifically, large trucks and certain other vehicles are taxed based on actual selling price, not on MSRP as are all other vehicles, per Title 36, Section 1482, paragraph 1 C(3) of the Maine Statutes.

This appears to conflict with Article IX, Section 8 of the Maine Constitution, which states that "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." Since the excise tax on all vehicles is not "apportioned and assessed equally," there seems to be a constitutional conflict.

In further research, the original assessing of excise tax based on MSRP was deemed fair since to do otherwise would result in variances on similar vehicles, depending on the actual selling price, and because the difference between MSRP and actual selling price was not generally large, at least at the time this provision was written.

That is certainly not the case now and presents a strong case for revising the methodology to again treat all vehicles equally, based on actual selling price rather than MSRP.

If it can be done for some vehicles, it can be done for all. And note that this is done in at least some other states that assess an excise tax.

Jeffrey Lauder

Windsor