Half the state answers to a state commission
Maine's Unorganized Territory has no municipal government — no selectmen, no code enforcement officer, no local planning board. Title 12 §683-A creates the Land Use Planning Commission as the planning and zoning authority for those townships and plantations, roughly 10.4 million acres spread across thirteen of the sixteen counties, with Aroostook, Piscataquis, Somerset, Penobscot, Washington, Franklin, Oxford and Hancock holding most of it. The Commission adopts land use districts and standards, issues development permits, and reviews subdivisions. Property tax in the Unorganized Territory is assessed and collected by the Maine Revenue Services Property Tax Division rather than a town office. If your deed describes a township by number and letter, this is your regulator.
Tree Growth has a withdrawal penalty
The Maine Tree Growth Tax Law, 36 M.R.S. §§571 through 584-A, values forest land by its productivity rather than market value, and it charges to leave. Under §581 the penalty for withdrawal is the greater of two figures: the taxes that would have been assessed for the five preceding tax years had the land been valued at just value on the withdrawal date, less taxes actually paid and plus interest; or a percentage of the amount by which just value exceeds the classified valuation — 30 percent if the land was classified ten years or less, dropping one point for each full year beyond ten, with a floor of 20 percent.
Shoreland zoning reaches 250 feet inland
The Mandatory Shoreland Zoning Act, 38 M.R.S. §§435 through 449, requires municipalities to regulate land within 250 feet of the normal high-water line of any great pond or river, within 250 feet of the upland edge of a coastal wetland, within 250 feet of the upland edge of a freshwater wetland, and within 75 feet of the normal high-water line of certain streams. Towns adopt and enforce their own ordinances, and the Department of Environmental Protection's Shoreland Zoning Unit supplies the minimum guidelines and training. In the Unorganized Territory, shoreland protection comes through the Land Use Planning Commission's own districts and standards rather than a town ordinance. Waterfront acreage is often mostly setback.
Towns collect the tax, not counties
In Maine's organized towns, property tax is assessed and collected by the municipality. Counties run the registries of deeds where your title lives, but they do not send the tax bill, and there is no county treasurer to call about arrears — the town office is the record. When taxes go unpaid, 36 M.R.S. §942 lets the collector record a tax lien certificate in the county registry, and that filing creates a tax lien mortgage in favor of the municipality with priority over other mortgages, liens and encumbrances. Section 943 governs redemption and discharge and requires the treasurer to notify the party named and each record mortgage holder before the foreclosing date. No court is involved.