At the May 27 Rockport Select Board meeting, several Rockport residents addressed the assertion that the town's proposed $52 million wastewater project would only be paid for by Rockport's sewer users.

This is false.

Every public building in Rockport that is connected to the sewer will be paying use fees and debt service related to the project, including the high school, elementary school, opera house, library, town offices, harbor building, and police & fire station. These fees will be included in everyone's tax bill and as a result will increase taxes.

In addition to the sewer costs for the town buildings, any taxpayer who could connect to the existing or new sewer, whether or not they choose to do so, will also pay the debt service.

Finally, the Select Board plans to use Tax Increment Financing (TIF) to help pay for the project. A TIF is a way to use future property taxes that are expected to result from an increase in property values related to a specific project to help pay for part of that project.

The $6-plus million in TIF funds in the proposed wastewater funding package represents taxpayer dollars (not just from sewer users), and the proposed plan for a TIF is absolute evidence that the town believes property taxes will increase, since the TIF mechanism is predicated on that.

The Rockport Select Board knows all of this but has chosen to obscure these critical facts in their overzealous desire for Rockport to have a wastewater system independent from Camden.

What a waste! Vote No on Question 3.

Judy Bonzi, Diana Castle, Simon Castle, Jan Czasak, Parker Hackett, Terri Harper, Aaron Johnson, Jeff Serrie, Natalie Watson, Tim Watts live in Rockport