CD2 contender Dunlap releases records showing LePage’s wife claimed Florida property tax credit

Paul LePage, who is currently running for U.S. Congress in Maine’s 2nd District, is once again facing scrutiny over his Florida residence after one of his Democratic opponents released documents showing the wife of the Republican former governor has claimed a Florida property tax exemption since 2018.

Matt Dunlap, one of four primary candidates vying for the Democratic nomination for U.S. Rep. Jared Golden’s seat, shared the documents at a Thursday press conference with reporters. 

Maine Morning Star independently verified the public records, which include tax records that show a property in Ann LePage’s name has received an annual $50,000 homestead exemption from 2018 through 2025. 

To qualify for the homestead exemption in Florida, the property must be the owner’s permanent residence, or the permanent residence of a dependent. 

Dunlap’s campaign also highlighted a mortgage for the Florida property naming Paul and Ann LePage as borrowers. A warranty deed names only Ann LePage, although a separate form transfers Paul LePage’s power of attorney to Ann LePage to purchase the Florida property on his behalf. 

Brent Littlefield, longtime advisor to LePage and chief strategist for LePage’s congressional campaign, said implications by Dunlap are false.  

“Liberal activist Matt Dunlap is so desperate for attention on the eve of his primary that he is falsely attacking Governor LePage,” Littlefield said in an email. “Paul and Ann are Mainers, are Maine residents, and did a phenomenal job as Governor and First Lady improving Maine’s economy and lifting up Maine Veterans.”

Dunlap said the documents raise questions about LePage’s commitment to Maine, as he makes his bid for the House seat. 

“Maine voters are entitled to a representative whose feet are actually on the ground here, whose property taxes paid for our schools, our roads, our first responders,” Dunlap said. “Whose home, actual home, the place where he goes when the cameras are off, is in the state he’s asking to represent.”

The LePage campaign said the couple do not have a homestead exemption on property outside of Maine, and Ann LePage filed paperwork with Flagler County signifying they do not qualify for the exemption.

A Flagler County employee said Thursday that all tax records are online and up to date.  

Dunlap said he is not accusing LePage of a crime, but he is not being transparent with voters. 

“He wants out of state tax breaks, he wants the gated community and the heated pool and the golf course,” Dunlap said. “And then he wants Mainers to send him to Congress to represent us while he’s been telling the state of Florida in writing, every year for eight years, that he lives somewhere else.”

Dunlap also noted LePage’s Maine address, an Augusta apartment, is owned by a Delaware LLC that traces back to Shawn Moody, the Republican candidate for governor in 2018. 

“So when Paul LePage tells you he lives in Maine, what he means is he sleeps, sometimes, in an apartment over a political favor from an old friend,” Dunlap said. 

Dunlap called on LePage to tell voters “where he actually slept last night,” release his Florida and Maine tax filings for the last eight years and,“explain to the people of Flagler County, Florida — who have been subsidizing his property taxes for nearly a decade on the understanding that he was their neighbor — why he was actually running for office a thousand miles away.”

It’s not the first time the LePages’ property taxes have been scrutinized. In 2010, Ann LePage was investigated for claiming a homestead exemption in Maine and Florida. 

But she was cleared of any violations after the investigation found she properly claimed the Florida tax exemption. Under Florida law, a person who receives a homestead exemption in another state also qualifies for the exemption in Florida if the property is the permanent residence of a legal dependent. 

Ann LePage was caring for her ailing mother, who lived at the Florida property and was listed as a dependent on LePage’s income tax filings.

Paul and Ann LePage own property in Washington County with their adult children, according to LePage’s campaign, and share the cost of that location’s property taxes.