Alna’s tax rate will probably be the same as last year’s, or very close to it, First Selectman David Abbott said Sept. 7.

“If there’s any difference, it’s just going to be a tiny bit one way or the other,” Abbott said at a board meeting. He expects the board to set the rate in early October.

The 2015 rate of $20.60 for every thousand dollars of assessed valuation was a nearly 10-percent drop from 2014’s rate. Much of it was due to the town hiking the values on Central Maine Power properties. CMP did not contest the new values and cannot contest them now, Third Selectman Doug Baston said.

The figures CMP gave the town this year for the company’s equipment declarations totaled about $4.75 million, Abbott said. Selectmen plan to send those to William Van Tuinen, the assessing contractor who recommended last year’s increases. Unless CMP values the properties higher than Van Tuinen does, they’ll go with Van Tuinen’s figures, board members said.

Abbott said Alna’s total valuation, one of the pieces in setting the tax rate, may go up a little; it usually does, he said. Baston said he’s noticed sales picking up for high-end properties, and some of the prices they’re going for reinforce his concern that they may be valued too low. One sold for about $130,000 more than the value the town put on it, he said.

“That’s the equivalent of a modest-sized house, not on the tax rolls ... That kind of feeds my belief that we’re getting out of wack, at least on the high-end (properties),” Baston said. If so, the less-affluent taxpayers are subsidizing the affluent ones, he said.

Abbott said he doesn’t like to see two similar properties valued differently.

Baston reiterated his recent statements that a town-wide revaluation would address the issues, and he said he’s leaning toward seeking a town meeting vote in 2017.

Revaluations can be a zero-sum game, because the general rule is a third of the properties’ values rise, a third drop and a third stay about the same, Baston said. “I just want people to pay their fair share ... When people perceive taxes are unfair, it builds tension.”

Also Sept. 7, the board agreed to pay Bill Rogers of Edgecomb up to $3,000 to repair cracks in town roads, starting with Cross Road. Abbott said repaving is probably the way to fix Cross Road, but he doubted there are enough funds.

Selectmen agreed to hire Mike Edgecomb of James W. Sewall Company in Old Town to negotiate Alna’s franchise deal with cable company Charter. Baston said the town got $305.45 from Time-Warner in 2015, and can do better with the help of Edgecomb, who used to work for Time-Warner and negotiate their agreements with towns.

“I think it’s money well-spent,” Baston said.