Bath Property Tax: The $20.81 Figure, and Why It Is Stale

The $20.81 Figure: Real, But Nine Years Stale

The $20.81-per-$1,000 mill rate for Bath comes from a Maine property-tax-rate compilation published on boxofmaine.com, dated February 21, 2023 — but that compilation itself cites 2017-vintage state rate data. In other words, the number that keeps circulating for Bath's tax rate is not even a 2023 figure; it is a 2017 figure that a 2023 table happened to reprint. Maine municipalities revalue property and adjust mill rates as municipal budgets change year to year, and nine years is more than enough time for a meaningful shift in either direction. Treat $20.81 as a historical data point that illustrates roughly where Bath has sat relative to its neighbors, not as a number to plug into a current affordability calculation.

Before relying on any specific rate for Bath, verify it directly with the City of Bath Assessor's Office, or check the city's own VGSI-hosted property assessment database at gis.vgsi.com/bathme/, which should reflect current assessed values and the applicable current rate.

How the 2017 Figure Compared to Bath's Neighbors

Even taken as a dated snapshot, the same 2017-vintage compilation is useful for one thing: showing Bath's rate sitting meaningfully higher than most of its immediate neighbors. Per that boxofmaine.com table, the per-$1,000 mill rates were: Bath $20.81, Brunswick $17.92, Topsham $17.33, Woolwich $13.09, and Georgetown — the actual town containing Reid State Park — just $7.64. That is roughly a 2.7x spread between Bath's rate and Georgetown's in that same dataset, and Bath sat noticeably above Brunswick and Topsham as well, both of which are also Kennebec-area towns just across the river or a short drive up Route 1.

Woolwich sits directly across the Kennebec from Bath via the Sagadahoc Bridge, and even in this same 2017 snapshot it carried a rate roughly 37% lower than Bath's. None of these comparison figures are current either — they come from the identical stale dataset — so treat this section as a relative-positioning exercise from a single point in time, not as today's numbers for any of these towns.

A Real, Current Data Point: The FY2026 Municipal Budget

Separately from the stale mill-rate figure, one genuinely current and dated fact exists: Bath approved a $24.8 million municipal budget around June 4, 2026, per Portland Press Herald reporting. That is a real, current signal of the city's fiscal scale for the fiscal year ahead. What this page cannot tell you is how that budget translates into a specific mill-rate change, what portion is offset by growth in the tax base (including Bath Iron Works' own contribution), or whether it moves Bath's rate up or down relative to the stale $20.81 figure above — the underlying tax-rate-impact details of that budget were not confirmed in the reporting available here. If the FY2026 budget's effect on your own tax bill matters to a purchase decision, ask the City of Bath directly what mill rate that budget produced.

Why Bath's Higher Rate Doesn't Automatically Mean a Higher Bill

A higher mill rate is only half the math behind an actual tax bill; the other half is assessed value. Bath is a real, working city with a median household income around $69,390 (a secondary-sourced figure, close to Maine's statewide median) — a meaningfully different economic profile than a second-home or retirement-oriented coastal town. If Bath's typical home values run lower than a neighboring town's, a higher nominal mill rate can still produce a comparable or lower actual bill. This page did not independently confirm a current Zillow, Redfin, or Census home-value figure for Bath during its research, so it cannot run that math for you here — but it is the right question to ask before assuming Bath's higher rate means Bath is the more expensive place to own.

What This Page Could Not Confirm

Several things here need direct verification rather than assumption. Bath's current mill rate was not confirmed this research pass — the $20.81 figure traces to 2017 data republished in 2023, and must be checked against the City of Bath Assessor's Office or gis.vgsi.com/bathme/ before use. The comparison figures for Brunswick, Topsham, Woolwich, and Georgetown are equally stale, from the same dataset. The FY2026 $24.8 million municipal budget's actual effect on the tax rate — up, down, or flat — was not confirmed. Bath's current assessment ratio (the share of market value at which the city assesses property) was not identified at all in this research. And no current Zillow, Redfin, or Census home-value figure for Bath was confirmed, so no illustrative dollar-amount tax bill is presented on this page. Verify all of the above directly with the City of Bath, and consult a Maine-licensed tax professional or real estate attorney before making a purchase decision based on property tax exposure.