10/13/2026
We'd like to share a letter from our Executive Director with a disappointing update on our current situation with the City of Portland.
Dear Members of the MIHC community,
I write with disappointing news regarding the property tax exemption status of the Maine Irish Heritage Center. In March of this year we applied to restore our exemption, which had been revoked by the City of Portland after more than two decades of otherwise supporting our nonprofit and charitable mission to promote Irish culture and heritage, to preserve our historic building, and to serve as a welcoming space for the broader community. Unfortunately last week, the City of Portland’s tax assessors, Elisa Marr and Matthew Caton, denied this application. As a result, the MIHC will be forced to pay $44,126.09 in property taxes for the current fiscal year.
While this follows on the heels of other Portland nonprofits also having their exemptions denied or revoked, our position is especially precarious because of the disproportion in the assessed value of our building and our actual operating budget. The Assessor’s Office, having carefully reviewed our books, are of course aware of this, noting that the “MIHC would operate at a loss without the financial assistance of government grants and membership dues,” and confirming we have no “clear profit motive.” This makes the message all the more dismaying since it registers clearly that the City is prepared to shutter the Irish Center permanently, despite there being no material change in our operations or service to the community.
The essential conclusion of the assessors’ 23-page letter defending the decision is that the “MIHC is not organized exclusively for charitable purposes as required by 36 M.R.S. §652.” And so, for example, the “MIHC using the Property as a central ‘gathering place’ for ‘all things Irish’ is commendable, but the City Assessor does not agree that it is within the narrow meaning of ‘charitable" activities’.” This “narrow meaning,” pushed by the assessors, once again resorts to archaic Massachusetts case law from 1867, limiting the definition of “charitable” to being “for the benefit of an indefinite number of persons, either by bringing their minds or hearts under the influence of education or religion, by relieving their bodies from disease, suffering, or constraint, by assisting them to establish themselves in life, or by erecting or maintaining public buildings or works or otherwise lessening the burdens of government.”
Given the narrow application of this case law, we will once again pursue vigorously in the next legislative session a change in the state statute that would explicitly extend protection to arts and culture organizations as providing a public and charitable good. We would also challenge Marr’s and Caton’s opinion, even in the Victorian definition of “charitable” to which they subscribe, that our preservation of the former St. Dominic’s church does not fall under the mission of “maintaining public buildings.” (Marr and Caton do allow “The Applicant's primary corporate purpose focuses on providing and preserving a physical building structure might constitute ‘charity’ in its broadest sense, but it does not meet the narrow legal definition.”)
To be clear, the City’s decision does not relate to our 501(c)3 status as a nonprofit—which is rightly recognized by federal law—nor has it affected the state’s designation of the Center as a charitable institution. Our non-charitability is purely the view of the City of Portland’s tax assessors and they have made a point of highlighting in their letter that “The Assessor's Office is independent and separate from the City of Portland's City Council and other branches of the municipal government,” answering only to the State Tax Assessor.
Despite this setback, I continue to be encouraged by the affirmations we have received at almost every turn in pursuing remedies to the assessor’s damaging decision. I would ask that if you are moved to advocate on our behalf, please contact those seeking election in November for their view on this issue, and help to support changes at the state level that will assist our case and that of similar organizations going forward.
Thank you,
Eric
