AUGUSTA, Maine — The estate of Gov. Janet Mills’ late husband has paid late taxes and fees that were owed on a piece of property in rural Franklin County that was the subject of a state lien, the governor’s office said Wednesday.
The property in Salem Township was owned by Stanley Kuklinski, who was married to the Democratic governor from 1985 until his 2014 death from stroke complications. Mills is the personal representative of the estate and is named as such on county property records.
The 4.6 acres are valued at just over $16,000 by Mills’ tax department, which collects taxes on properties in Maine’s Unorganized Territory. The state issued its first mortgage lien last March and another one last month. Kuklinski’s estate owed $178.91 after interest and fees.
The liens were first reported Tuesday by the Maine Wire, the news arm of the conservative Maine Policy Institute. On Wednesday, Mills’ office responded by saying the governor has never held title to it and there is a question about whether her husband ever held title to it.
“The estate has delivered payment in full and is working to clarify the property’s title status,” Mills spokesperson Ben Goodman said.
Mills is the latest in a long line of Maine politicians to face tax questions. A fellow Farmington politician, Republican Chandler Woodcock, was dogged by a series of earlier tax liens late in his 2006 campaign against then Gov. John Baldacci. All of his bills had been paid by that time, and Woodock said he and his wife struggled financially while putting kids through college.
BDN writer Billy Kobin contributed to this report.
