Public Records in the Assessor's Office
Commitment Books
A commitment book lists every taxable real and personal property in the City of Bath. This record include property owner's names and addresses, property valuations, property tax exemptions, and the amount of property tax assessed for each property. Each year's commitment is recorded in a document that is a permanent public record.
Due to past fires, many older Bath records are missing. The few commitment books we have from the 1800s have been microfilmed or photographed and are available digitally. Some are in our office; most are at the Sagadahoc History and Genealogy Room of the Patten Free Library. Recent commitment books generally also include lists of those real and personal properties that are exempt from taxation.
Property Record Cards (Valuation Cards)
The Assessor creates property record cards describing each potentially taxable property (real or personal) in the City of Bath. New cards are generally created when a revaluation is completed. The card provides information on the method and basis of assessing that property, and can be reviewed for any property upon request.
Property record cards back to 1967 are available in the assessor's office. Cards since 1978 generally include a photograph of the property.
Tax Maps
Tax maps showing lot numbers or other characteristics representing parcels assessed for taxation are permanent records. Our earliest tax maps are from the 1930s.
E9-1-1 Addressing
Materials related to E9-1-1 addressing in the City of Bath are public records. The E9-1-1 program was first completed in Bath in 1999.
Aerial Photographs
Aerial photographs of land use in Bath are permanent public records.
Abatement Records
Record books recording tax abatements and supplemental assessments made in the City of Bath are permanent public records.
Taxpayer Privacy and the Assessor's Office
Although most information in the Assessor's Office is a public record, under Maine law, the following types of information is confidential.
- Emails obtained by the City solely to provide notifications, updates and cancellations to individuals that request or regularly accept these notifications. The Assessor's office sends updates to those enrolled in Maine's Property Tax Stabilization program under this provision (Title 1 Section 402, Subsection 3-S of the Maine Revised Statutes (MRS)).
- Social Security numbers are always confidential. Only applications for the Veteran or Veteran's Survivor Exemptions require a social security or military ID number, and these applications are not available for public review (Title 1 Section 402, Subsection 3-N, MRS).
- Proprietary and confidential information received from taxpayers, as long as the material is clearly labeled by the taxpayer as such and is not material that is otherwise defined as a public record (Title 36 Section 706-A Subsection 1 and 3, MRS). Proprietary information means information that is a trade secret or production, commercial or financial information that, if disclosed, would harm the competitive position of the taxpayer.