The single most important responsibility of the Maine Legislature is to enact policies that will help foster an economic environment that will encourage job creation and retention. That is why we have adopted significant health insurance, regulatory, tax, pension and welfare reforms. It is also why the Maine Senate passed legislation to use the growth in future revenues to reduce Maine’s income tax level from 7.95 percent to 4 percent.
Recent editorials have been quick to dismiss our plan and the taxpayer concerns that generated it.
LD 849, “An Act To Provide Tax Relief for Maine’s Citizens by Reducing Income Taxes,” was hardly rushed; it has been proposed by Republican legislators for years. It has had numerous public hearings and public debates extending back to when Republicans were the minority party. Its implementation is the logical outcome of the voters’ decision to change the direction of state government. Since we were given the opportunity to lead Maine in a new, more prosperous direction, it is reasonable to expect that we would follow through on our pledge to enact it.
We are committed to making state government more affordable. LD 849 sets a goal of gradually reducing income taxes paid by Maine citizens over time. It is only triggered when the economy improves, and there are extra revenues over and above the budgeted needs of state government.
Extra revenues go into a fund that is used to gradually reduce the highest income tax rates over time until the maximum rate is 4 percent. A similar version of our tax plan was enacted into law in 1995 when Republicans last held a majority in the Maine Senate, but was repealed by Democrats two years later.
Recently, former Gov. Angus King was asked by Pat Callahan of WCSH6: “What if anything would you like to do over?” He responded by citing late Senate President Jeff Butland’s law to reduce the income tax rate over time with surplus revenues. Gov. King said: “We were afraid to do it because we were afraid it would create deficits down the road. It turns out we had four to five years of surpluses and we could have done it.”
LD 849 operates with a spending cap that was signed into law by Gov. John Baldacci in 2005. It was done, in part, to address a $1 billion deficit that he inherited from Gov. King. When prosperous times return, LD 849 takes monies above the statutory spending limitation and returns them to taxpayers through gradual income tax rate reductions.
The major difference between LD 849 and the law we passed in 1995 is that it contains a target of 4 percent. That makes the bill harder to repeal. Opponents of this approach are concerned because it will limit their ability to take even more money from taxpayers to create new government programs.
Opponents of our plan attempt to link it to the unrelated Taxpayer Bill of Rights, or TABOR, proposals that sought to place limitations on the ability of the Legislature and municipal governments to increase taxes by requiring voter approval. LD 849 does no such thing. Rather, it sets a goal for state government, and only state government. Doing so will help us achieve an income tax rate that will support a more vibrant economy by encouraging people to reside in Maine year-round.
Voters gave Republicans the opportunity to lead Maine in the midst of the worst economy in generations. Year after year, state government has experienced annual shortfalls, and before Republican control, had been on course to create a society where more people receive from state government than contribute to it. We are keeping the promises that we made by implementing policies that have been part of our platform for years. LD 849 is one of them.
Finally, an editorial in another newspaper asserted that “cutting the top income-tax rate in half to 4 percent could be decades away.” For the sake of our children and grandchildren, let’s hope that is not the case. We are acting now to position Maine to be on the front end of the economic recovery when it comes. LD 849 is a responsible approach to creating future growth and opportunity for all Mainers.
Sen. Jon Courtney, R-Springvale, is the Senate Majority Leader. He represents Senate District 3 which includes parts of York County. He chairs the Joint Select Committee on Regulatory Fairness and Reform.
LD 849 Is another Ponzi Scheme like the Norguist Tax Pledge!
More of the “Cant Tax the Job Creators ” Bull!
This Increases the Defecit in Years of a bad Economy and then these Tax Grumps use the Defecit as a reason to go after anything and everything that they dont like paying for. It is a Scam!
This is like your Broken Craftsman Ratchet in your tool box!
It Tightens “one way” Only!
We need to turn it in and get one that WORKS!
A tax reduction or refusal to increase taxes is not a “Ponzi scheme”. You should look up what that term means.
you should look up about the lack of impact on the economy giving tax cuts to the wealthy and business has.
You called a tax cut a “Ponzi scheme”. It is not. You don’t seem to know what a Ponzi scheme is.
It is well known that punitive taxation depresses the economy. People, business and investment have been driven out of Maine for decades by the progressively increasing imposition of taxes, controls and bureaucratic abuse.
But the fundamental justification for tax cuts is the right of the individual to keep his own property from being coercively “redistributed”, not to provide you with an “economy”. A productive, growing economy is a consequence of political and economic freedom. Private property rights are rights, they not contingent on serving the collective. That, for instance, is why people have a right to keep what they own when they retire instead of having it seized because they are not “providing jobs”.
LD 849 is a tax “relief” wolf in sheep’s clothing.
Which stands to reason since we are presently governed by wolves and we should stop being sacrificial lambs and reject this like has already been done in various ways at least 3 times.
“A nation of sheep will beget a government of wolves.” Edward R. Murrow
Are you saying LePage, Nutting and Raye are really werewolves?! That’s excellent.
A Rabid Pack of Mangy Muts fer sure!
Give me a good loyal dog any day over the foxes that were guarding the henhouse under the Baldacci regime when the Violettes, McCormicks, and their ilk were stealing the taxpayers blind. No wonder states like New Hampshire can run their government without income OR sales taxes. Maine government is bloated beyond belief and any minot trimming that has been done has barely gotten into the fat.
untrue– look at NH property taxes, you’d be whining about high property taxes in maine.
darn that bloated government until they cut something that impacts you or yours.
no sweeter sound than the squeal of a conservatives getting screwed by the very system they try to defend
I keep hearing about how high New Hampshire’s property taxes are yet their mil rates are comparable to ours. They just have more valuable property. At least they have a more valuable asset at the end of the day. In Maine we get taxed higher and have little to show for it other than bloated government. Maybe if Maine government wasn’t siphoning so much from taxpayers we’d have more valuable property here too.
You could cut most of government and not hear a peep from me. Any “cutting” (which is usually a decrease in the rate of increase) done in Maine government is accompanied by the incessant squealing of those feeding at the public trough.
It is tax relief if it is allowed to take effect when there is a surplus. It can only work with legislators acting in good faith to reduce spending. Much more than that is required for meaningful tax relief instead of leaving our fate to the tender mercies of the statist big spender to not squander a surplus rather than “lose” it.
The “wolves” are the state fleecing people through Maine’s horrendous taxes and controls.
you sound pathetic, taxes and controls? tell ya what, get an education, get a better job and then complain about taxes and controls as they ACTUALLY impact you
Smearing people as “pathetic” is not responsive. You have no idea what my education, career, and subjugation to taxes and controls has been. Nor is it relevant to the capacity to understand that the state is the “wolves” doing the fleecing, not taxpayers demanding cuts in taxes to reduce their fleecing.
http://247wallst.com/2012/03/22/americas-most-corrupt-states/2/ We are #5.
Pretty well described here: http://247wallst.com/2012/03/22/americas-most-corrupt-states/2/
Oh goody…now all Maine needs is for it’s citizens to HAVE an income…..
Some of us live in Maine and pay relatively high state taxes because we don’t particularly want to live anywhere else. The principal reason our taxes are higher is that we are a mostly rural state where many people have chosen to spread out and live away from city centers. As a consequence Maine must maintain a disproportionate amount of infrastructure, either through taxes
(e.g.: highways) or user fees (e.g.: energy grid). We haven’t made things easier by saddling ourselves with no less than 7 state University campuses, 7 Community College campuses and a dozen or so off-campus locations of various sorts. All that in a state with a base population of 1.3 million, 16% of which is made up of senior citizens and 22% of children 18 or younger.
Only about 450.000 Maine residents actually pay income taxes. To propose cutting taxes in the absence of a meaningful economic growth plan and independent of any realistic economic
performance milestones amounts to political farce. Tax cutting alone does not equate to an economic growth plan, nor can it guarantee growth, especially in times of a fragile economic recovery. Lower income taxes would be wonderful, so long as they are part and parcel of responsible economic planning, not just wishful ideology.
As written, LD849 is little more than a repeat of TABOR, which was voted down twice by Mainers. It is based on the fallacies of “trickle-down” economics and the wealthy as “job-creators”. Economic growth occurs when states create and maintain the economic climate and infrastructure that allows businesses and entrepreneurs to grow. Rather than cutting income taxes for wealthy individuals first, it would be far more sensible to award meaningful tax reductions to any corporations and business owners based on documented employment increases. Increased employment will boost state income taxes and other revenues. Until that happens any talk about broad based income tax reductions at the top end is entirely premature, if not irresponsible.
People, industry and investment have not been driven out of the state because Maine is “rural”. They are driven out by the high taxes and controls. Significantly reducing taxes by reducing spending and redistributionism is part of what is required for economic growth, along with revoking the scope of controls and non-objective laws leaving innocent people at the mercy of punitive bureaucratic discretion.
The principle that people willing to invest their wealth is a requirement for a productive, growing economy is not a “fallacy” and not a “trickle”, which term was deliberately devised as a smear against a free economy that respects individual achievement and property rights.
The fundamental justification for tax reductions is the right to one’s own property free of collectivist “redistribution”, not “providing jobs”. Rights are rights of individuals, not gifts in exchange for serving the collective. A productive, growing economy is the result of a poltical system based on the rights and freedom of the individual.
balony– we are at the end of the line. anything but wood that is manufactured in this state has to have components brought in, assembled and shipped back out again.
if tax cuts work so well , why did the bush tax cuts bring on a recession, get a clue
“A productive, growing economy is the result of a poltical system based on the rights and freedom of the individual.”—- simply not true– ever since business and corporations obtained the same rights as citizens
The Bush (and Reagan and Kennedy) tax cuts did not cause a recession.
Businesses and corporations are voluntary associations of individuals, of course they still have rights in a free society.
Maine’s location is not why we have a third world economy. NH, VT, and Canada are also “at the end of the line”. They also have “transportation costs” — and so do places all around the world, like China, where they are much higher. Our whole country was once at the “end of the line” when it was first settled as wilderness and expanding across the west. Under political freedom it became the most productive economy in the world, increasing the standard of living to levels undreamed of previously.
And Maine’s political system is one of the most corrupt: http://247wallst.com/2012/03/22/americas-most-corrupt-states/2/ . Think that has anything to do with our economic situation?
I grow tired of hearing that we area small, rural state. Because we are rural fully 1/3 of the state is nothing but a cash cow for the government. The unorganized territories require almost nothing in services and the state collects taxes from all of it. The landowners pay property taxes but the roads are private, there is no trash collection, and the only fire protection is paid for directly by the landowners via the commercial forestry excise tax. We’re not much different than New Hampshire when you factor that in yet somehow they manage to fund their government without income taxes or sales taxes. How on earth can they do it? Because Maine government at all levels is a bloated mess that sucks the life out of the Maine economy. See Paul Violette and Dale McCormick for recent examples of profligate spending that is nothing more than a drain on the economy.
You are right and this proves it in my mind: http://247wallst.com/2012/03/22/americas-most-corrupt-states/2/ . This should make all honest citizens very angry and ashamed. To say I live in one of the most corrupt states in the country is so disheartening.
“One of the last states to have a tax rate as high as California is proposing
was Delaware in the 1970s. Its rate hit 19.8%. Then-Governor Pete du Pont cut
the rate to 10.3% in 1979 and later to 5.95%, and after five years the state’s
revenues had nearly doubled and its credit rating went from the worst to one of
the best.” Excerpted from WSJ Editorial 3-26-2012
You are kidding right? Read this and reconsider: http://247wallst.com/2012/03/22/americas-most-corrupt-states/2/
Anyone want to take bets about whether or not the author of this propaganda is an MHPC spin artist?
“Enacting policies that will help foster an economic environment” is not a “responsibility of the Maine Legislature”, let alone the “single most important” one. The fundamental purpose of government in a free society is to protect the rights of the individual, including the government itself refraining from violating our rights by using coercion to manipulate the economy — which is statism.
The justification for lower taxes is the right to not have one’s assets coercively “redistributed”, not to “foster” an economy under some variation of statist theories. A prosperous economy is the result of allowing people to use their minds and putting their ideas into practice in peaceful production and trade, not the purpose of government force.
Another fundamental purpose of government you neglect to mention is to protect the rights of the individual from corporations violating our rights by using coercion to manipulate the economy– which is corporatism. Also to protect the rights of the individual from organized religeon from violating our rights by using coercion to manipulate the government, which is just called wrong.
Tax breaks and/or reductions have never been a good thing for anybody but the rich.
Leftist slogans smearing “corporations” and “the rich” are not the purpose of government. The progressives rail against “the rich” in their ugly class warfare rhetoric fanning envy and resentment, and impose social controls and taxes on all of us, primarily the middle class.
The middle class is being destroyed by the tax burden. We are in revolt against it and the progressive attempts to increase it. Everyone — which includes wealthy people as well as the rest of us — has a right to his own property regardless of redistributionist leftists demanding that tax reductions are only good for “the rich” as an excuse to raise taxes.
Corporations are voluntary associations of individuals. Corporations do not use “coercion to manipulate the economy”. Only the government has that power. There is no such thing as “corporatism” aside from a form of fascism in which government power is exercised.
Edit to add response to harveyammerman below:
Smearing people as “spouting tired right wing BS” is not responsive.
Fascism is the form of socialism in which private property is nominally recognized but is in fact controlled by government. It inevitably results in a mixing of private interests and government power. It is not “privatization”, which is the opposite of government power.
We see the fascist principle corrupting Maine in particular with the so-called “public private partnerships” and with the undue influence especially by the anti-private property rights viro groups. Some of this fascistic corruption of what is supposed to be a free society comes from the political class and some from those in some corporations with political connections and influence. But fascism is not “corporations”. There are tens of thousands of corporations in this country involving many more people and they are not “fascists”. We are getting in this country growing fascism with communist slogans.
The middle class destruction through taxes is not caused by not taxing some people even more than they are now. There is no “fair share” duty to be fleeced for redistribution to serve the collective.
You just continue to spout the same tired right wing BS. Fascism is government run by and for the benefit of corporations. That is where the right wing push for privatization of government leads. Corporations corrupt the government with cash they have from not paying taxes. The middle class is being destroyed by their tax burden, I agree, but the burden is such because the top 1% DOES NOT PAY THEIR FAIR SHARE!!!
THAT was beautifully stated. May I quote you?
..
One would have to wonder if the people pushing for tax cuts of any kind drive over the same decrepit roads that the rest of us do. If we started fixing our roads tomorrow, it would take 50 years to bring them up to horrible. How is cutting taxes going to help with this problem?
The waste, and mismanagement in Maine government is responsible for the condition of the roads in Maine. The Bucksport bridge was abandoned because the dedicated, hard working state employees “forgot” to inspect the cables and they rotted away. The Democrats refused to prioritize infrastructure spending and rail trails and fountains in the capital parking lot got the same or higher priority as real road maintenance. Somehow New Hampshire manages to maintain their roads without and income OR a sales tax. However do they do it?
New Hampshire relies heavily on property taxes for local and state revenue. The amount of local and state revenue is about 8% less than that of Maine. So they raise nearly the same amount of money as Maine, but it’s through property taxation not sales or income tax. I guess they figure that disgruntled citizens can’t load up their property and go to another state. Smart, very smart.
The high property taxes in NH, like in Maine, are due mostly to the bloated, failing government school monopoly.
I keep hearing that, but their mil rates are very similar to ours. Seems like the citizens of New Hampshire just have a more valuable asset to pay the taxes on. Maybe because they get to keep more of the money they earn. In Maine we pay more in taxes and have less to show for it.
Excellent work, Senator Courtney. You are to be congratulated for your responsible governance.
You’re kidding right?
Once or twice a week I like to visit these comment boards to see if there’s anything
I should be worried about. Thanks to the vast majority of you, I am encouraged
about the future of my country and my state.
When I say “my country,” I mean the country of the Haves. Of whom, all modesty
aside, I am a member.
You see, while you are cleverly thinking up creative ways to misspell the
president’s name, and ranting about George Soros and ACORN and dressing up in
colonial costumes like it’s Halloween and waving your cute little “don’t tread
on me” flags, we are getting richer.
You really don’t get it, and I love that. My first and second homes are paid for, I pay
cash when I buy a new car every few years. When they talk about the “average”
tax cut from last year’s state budget (which, astonishly, you never connect
with the current shortfall), there have got to be several people getting teeny
tax cuts to make up for the thousands I will receive. I make lots of money in dividends and capital
gains, and on that income I pay 15% income tax. What do you pay, working stiff?
(If you do work – I suspect many of you
are “keep your government hands off my Medicare” types.)
So hey, keep on thinking up funny new ways to spell the president’s name. Keep
raving about “socialism” (we Haves especially love that one) and
justifying why guys like me should pay lower taxes than someone who breaks
their back eight or ten hours a day for low wages and no benefits.
And best of all, don’t stop pointing out to those “socialist
Democrat” fools that people like me are JOB CREATORS! Because really, when
I wake up every morning, the very first thing I think about is how many jobs I
can create today.
Honest, I do. Really.
A smart guy once said, “No one ever went broke by underestimating the
American public.” Every time I view the comments on these boards, I thank
you, my dear friends, for reaffirming the truth
of that statement.
Excellent post. How true. The idiots just don’t get it, think they’re saving the world.
Thank you, thank you, thank you. Integrity is alive. I am saving your post. I will read it many times when I feel discouraged about the State of our Union. And I like the rest of the quote: People can easily be persuaded to accept the most inferior ideas or useless products. When? when? will people be able to see how they are being manipulated?
In fact, economics professor Steve Keen ran an economic computer model
in 2009, and the model demonstrated that giving the stimulus to the
debtors is a more potent way of reducing the impact of a credit crunch
[than giving money to the big banks and other creditors]. And as
discussed above, Reich notes that tax cuts for the wealthy just lead to
speculative bubbles … which hurt, rather than help the economy.
Thanks,
Financial Advisor
Maine is the 5th most corrupt state in this Union. http://247wallst.com/2012/03/22/americas-most-corrupt-states/2/ Don’t try to tell us we can believe anything that this legislature does is in the interest of The People of Maine. It is time we clean house, both houses.