AUGUSTA, Maine — Maine has moved up seven spots in a national research group’s annual assessment of states’ tax climates for business.
The Tax Foundation ranked Maine 30th in its 2013 State Business Tax Climate Index, up from 37th in the foundation’s 2012 index.
The Tax Foundation ranking takes into account more than 100 factors, including corporate income tax, sales tax, unemployment insurance tax and property taxes, according to the foundation’s website. The Washington, D.C.-based foundation, which promotes tax-cutting policies, was founded in 1937 and has ties to some conservative-leaning organizations.
Maine’s improvement in the 2013 survey was a result of the elimination of the state’s alternative minimum tax for individuals as part of the current state budget and the expiration of a ban that prohibited businesses from carrying forward operating losses from one year to offset profits in future years, according to the Tax Foundation.
Wyoming took first place in the Tax Foundation survey, while New York was last. In New England, Maine’s ranking was third highest, behind New Hampshire (No. 7) and Massachusetts (No. 22) and ahead of Connecticut (No. 40), Rhode Island (No. 46) and Vermont (No. 47).
The Tax Foundation singled out Michigan for what it called the most dramatic movement in the index. The state jumped to 12th from 18th after eliminating the Michigan Business Tax and replacing it with a flat corporate tax rate.
In a news release, LePage welcomed the news and said he expected Maine to move up in the Tax Foundation’s 2014 index, when the survey reflects income tax changes that take effect Jan. 1, 2013. Those changes lower the top individual income tax rate to 7.95 percent from 8.5 percent and merge four tax rates into two.
“The reduction of the tax burden on residents and businesses will lead to more and better jobs in Maine,” LePage said in a statement. “By removing burdensome government regulations, the people of Maine will prosper again.”
For their part, Democrats called the Tax Foundation a group with a “conservative ideology.”
“The kind of tax cuts for the rich and corporations that they support have failed to create jobs nationally and here in Maine,” said Rep. Seth Berry of Bowdoinham, the ranking Democrat on the Legislature’s Taxation Committee.
“Wyoming took first place in the Tax Foundation survey, while New York was last. ”
I think that tells you enough about their little list.
I’ve read your opinions and I’ve read the Tax Foundtions facts. The Tax Foundation wins.
Wins what? I’ve looked at the Tax Foundation’s list and I’d say New York is doing a bit better than Wyoming. Your opinion of me is irrelevant.
Determining who is “doing better” is very sunjective and was not the question to be answered by this survey. A place like NY has many huge natural advantages over a rural, landlocked, state such as Wyoming. But Wyoming has what many would perceive as quality of life advantages. If youre happy in either place, yourre “doing better.” But Wyoming has by far the better business tax climate, so if your business doesnt need the advantages of a an eastern seaboard location, where would you locate it?
You just said that it’s subjective and essentially opinion based. So don’t proceed to make a declaration of who is better after you’ve just admitted that this questionaire/list is not what it’s really about.
I’m sorry, but if you’re a big and serious business, I doubt you’d decide to locate to Wyoming over New York. Let’s be honest here — for real.
I read your posts quite and all they ever consist of is irrelevant opinions. Subject: [bdn] Re: Maine moves up in national business tax climate survey
wolfndeer wrote, in response to libsux:
Wins what? I’ve looked at the Tax Foundation’s list and I’d say New York is doing a bit better than Wyoming. Your opinion of me is irrelevant.
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Hands down !
Thank you Gov. Lepage and the GOP majority for the common sense approach to business taxation.
Now maybe we can rebuild the industrial base that has been destroyed by the democrats and their “creative economy” policies.
The reason we all want business to thrive is because we want more and better jobs in our state’s economy. I’m a small business owner myself. If my company does well, it will expand and employ more. But tax cuts won’t make that happen.
The metropolitan area with the lowest unemployment rate east of the Mississippi is….wait for it…socialist Burlington, Vermont with a Tax Foundation rating of #47.
http://www.bls.gov/web/metro/laummtrk.htm
The lowest unemployment rate east of the Mississippi (4.3%) and one of the highest tax rates on businesses.
Lowering taxes on business owners so all that goodness will trickle down to the rest just doesn’t work. Government can help, but not if you starve it so it can’t do anything. Lowering taxes is not the answer.
[Lowest unemployment west of the Mississippi is in places where they have struck oil or natural gas – nothing to do with taxes. In fact governmnet isn’t growing fast enough there to keep up with the expanded need for schools and infrastructure]
Workmans Comp needs a serious look at a badly needed redo. Those rates that small business pay into that are outrageous.
omg, so you want big businesses to pay more?! quit demonizing success! you hate America! — Romney
What is your problem/ Do you own a small business? If you did, then you would clearly understand what financial strain Workmans Comp puts on small businesses in Maine each year. Jason Web has it the Worst. No competing with Canadians, it just does NOT happen with the huge payments small businesses are required to pay into Workman’s comp. Where did I say I wanted BIG businesses to pay more? I do NOT hate America but do not have time to banter with the likes of you.
I do. I know how hard the little guy has it and that is why I’m so repulsed by people like Romney who screech and cry that they’re the ones struggling. A guy like Romney complains about an effective rate of ~13% and yet he’s making millions? He argues that he’s the one who needs tax breaks? While the rest of us struggle to get by, while the rest of us actually care about the country and don’t hide our money over seas.
Big business SHOULD pay more. They get by with cheating and hiding, while the rest of us pick up their slack. It’s wrong.
Hmm, I don’t remember ever hearing Romney “screech and cry” about struggling. Please quote your source.
Quote your source where I said it was Romney specfically screeching and crying.
Cheating and hiding. Then start with the Left. GE’s Jeffrey Immult. You show nothing but jealousy over people who are in a higher income bracket. Both sides should take your blame.
I agree.
Workers compensation is a form of health insurance. HI premiums, including workers comp, are killing us. Not only is it too high, but it jumps from year to year. I can’t make an accurate bid on work because I can’t predict health insurance costs one or two years out. My Canadian competition doesn’t have this problem. This difference hurts my business terribly.
Recent legislation in Augusta supported by the inurance industry just let them jump premiums even higher.
I don’t pretend to understand all the ins and outs of Obamacare, but at least it’s an attempt to get the insurance companies under control. It, or something like it, is working in Canada.
Then send Maine more of your money – it’s perfectly okay to do.
Oh oh! LePage did it. Blame Bush.
Wow 30 years on the bottom of the list and just after 2 years to 3oth. Good job Mr. LePage.. All this time the liberals had it backwards.
This is why LePage was elected. Put a stop to the spend and tax of the last sixteen years. A Gov. who puts the people of Maine ahead of his next election bid. Making the tough calls that are not always popular. This is something the last tow Govs. wouldn’t do. Thank you Gov. LePage.
Just Wikipedia the darn Tax Foundation and you will discover what it is all about. (One of the Koch brothers was on the Bd of Directors). It’s all about big money, and they often rely on premature and not confirmed information. I say Wikipedia, because it’s simple and so obvious that this report is an attempt to influence elections in Maine, by a conservative think tank whose origins are clearly involved with big automotive and oil company’s interests, and has continued onward ever since.
You forgot this part: The foundation is a nonpartisan group founded in 1937 and based in Washington, D.C. The left just hate to give the Gov. a little credit, when credit is do.
LOL, you can call them non-partisan all you want, but they essentially only care about taxes and they’ve had a Koch on their board.
Give credit where it’s actually due, not where it’s distorted to be due.
Koch heads? I guess this news will be taken with a grain of salt.
I didn’t call them anything. I took a quote from the story. So what group or organization do you believe in or trust? Because it appears that anybody saying anything positive about the LePage administration is a right wing rag.
Who said anything positive about LePage? You’re the one dragging it there like magically results are yielded within moments.
The group is obviously partisan whether you want to admit it or not. They’re anti-tax and they’ve had a Koch on their board — that’s partisanship. Period.
Wyoming is first and New York is last? Honestly? You think that is an accurate and non-biased analysis? Why then is New York essentially the center (or at least a major part) of the global economy if it’s so business unfriendly? Then with Wyoming at the opposite end?
Let’s be honest here. You can think LePage is doing good things, but this list is hardly a reliable marker of anything.
I assumed where as the LePage administration made changes in the tax code some of the credit would have to go in his direction. Again…which group or organization can I believe in, who is not a right wing group?
Think objectively. The spectrum is supposedly Wyoming as the best and New York as the absolute worst — you’re going to trust that?
“T he Tax Foundation ranking
takes into account more than 100 factors, including corporate income
tax, sales tax, unemployment insurance tax and property taxes, according
to the foundation’s website.” To answer your question. Reading this quote, their rating is based mostly on the tax rates payed. I do not have the numbers for NY or WY. I’m assuming NY rates are extremely high and WY. is very low. If this is so, I can see how they reach that conclusion. Am I on the right track here?
Of course that’s how they reach the conclusion, but it’s clear that ranking high on their list doesn’t translate to a booming economy.
Ya see, Grampy, that where you let me down. I thought you really did your homework, but you blithely skipped over the important part. It was founded by (wait for it!)….”Alfred P. Sloan, Jr., Chairman of the General Motors; Donaldson Brown, GM’s Financial VP; William S. Farish, President of Standard Oil Company of New Jersey (Exxon); and Lewis H. Brown, President of Johns-Manville Corporation…” No concerns there, huh, with all those Aw Shucks and Average Joes commissioning those non-partisan studies?
So we shouldn’t use successful people on this boards and commitees. Who should be used? So who does form the different groups study groups.
These are wildly successful companies with massive profits. Good for them, but they’re fighting for even lower taxes with this list.
Now let’s get some history here. FDR was into the New Deal in 1937, and the US was at the tail end of a depression. In order to get certain things passed, FDR wasn’t foolish enough not to allow some sort of concessions, and he knew that our country was going to be involved, at that time and in some manner, a war. So he appealed to what? automotive and oil interests, and involved them. Let’s be sure we get it historically correct.
I don’t give the Governor a little credit…..I give him none. How many jobs has he created, on his own? How many people, and legislator’s, voter’s and national publications has he simply confounded? Without any doubt, this Governor is following a political ideology, and not acting like a person who cares: about people, or re-election, or anything other than his own little Marden corporate world, He does not have his finger on the pulse of the common Maine voter, he has nothing to offer. How many candidates do you see, asking for and seeking his endorsement?
its bad because on of the Koch brothers is on the board but if Warren Buffet were on the board that would be a different story
that damned guvna,next thing you know,them money people from away gonna start openin businesses and tryin to hire people.What is this state comin to?
Big Lots just announced that they were opening a new store in Farmington. They are taking applications for 55 part time, minimum wage positions. These new “employees” will need some help with their groceries, heating oil, and health care from the tax payers, because, unfortunately, their new employer doesn’t pay anything close to enough for these new hires to support themselves. Big Lots is from away and they are trying to hire people. Be careful what you wish for.
and they will probably be part time employees to aviod the “affordable health care act” like longhorn steak house and olive garden are going to start changing many more of their employees to.Be careful what YOU wish for……besides needing some help is better than needing to be totally supported by the taxpayer until they can find a better job or get into/finish school
ACA? lol. How in God’s name did you come up with that segue? I was speaking of the rampant under employment being under taken by big corporate America and it’s strain on the tax payers. What does this have to do with health care? Now, instead of looking like skin flints they can blame part time minimum wage jobs on health care? lol. WalMart started this 35 hour, minimum wage crap 20 years ago, long before the ACA came around. Kind of ironic when you think about it. They are the ones that started slashing health care benefits for employees and brought about the need for the ACA in the first place. Remember, these are the same people who associated unions with communism for years. Now they are over there embracing communism and their $20 a week workers. More irony for you.
20 years ago was about the time hillary clinton was trying to take over health care ,if i recall. you seem to be under the delusion that any company would hurt its bottom line to give artificially high wages to its employees. when over forty hours a week became the threshold for overtime and benefits the affected companies reduced full time hours to reduce costs.now comes the affordable care act which will cause insurance rates to skyrocket. The logical step for a company to take is to reduce fulltimers to get out of the requirement,thus putting those workers into a gov’t. run program. But i do believe this article was about maine becoming more business friendly,which you somehow equated with another chain store opening in somerset county ,which makes no sense.As to your union comment,the gov’t. bailed out GM and pretty much gave it to the UAW.Now GM is going to open plants in china.How’s that for irony? Try to strike in china and you will be gettin a good look at a tank tread.
That’s better then NO jobs. Some will work their way to full time work with better wages. Others will learn skills they then can use in the future. And yes many will still need SOME help. Some help is better then being totally supported by the state and fed. government. Again give a little credit, where credit is due.
“Some will work their way to full time work with better wages”. Where? At Big Lots?lol. WalMart? lol. These are the only places hiring in rural Maine these days. They ran out all the small, locally owned businesses that payed decent wages. No one should have to suffer the indignity of having to go apply for food stamps with a pair of work boots on, period. No one should have to come home from a hard day’s work and fill out a LLIHEAP application, because you can’t afford to stay warm on what your cheap skate employer can get away with “paying” you.
Ok I can’t compete with your logic. Having no job, is better than Big Lots, or WalMart wages? Getting some help with LLIHEAP after a hard days work is worse than being totally supported by the government because you have no job? And last but not least..if you can’t pay me $15.00 to $20.00 an hour, don’t bring your jobs to town. Does that pretty well cover it?
The Walton heirs are now worth $93 billion, or 93,000 million. I think they could afford to give their “associates” a raise so the tax payers do not have to support them, period.
You do understand that “wealth” is largely made up of stock and property. If the Waltons were to sell their stock it would make the remaining shares less valuable.
This does nothing to belay the fact that they amassed an insane amount of money by using the tax payers to support their “associates”. I believe that the complete failure of wages, the life blood of the middle class, to keep pace with inflation over the last 20 years is the single biggest problem with our economy. WalMart is now America’s largest under employer and has a turn over rate that would make McDonald’s blush. They come into a town and run all the small businesses out of business. Small businesses that were paying their employees a wage they could get by on. They turn decent paying jobs into “public assistance” jobs, thereby driving up our social services costs. They contribute nothing to the local community, unless they pass the hat around among their “associates” and give it in the name of WalMart. They are a large contributing factor to our insane trade deficit with communist China, which is expected to top $400 billion this year alone. In my humble opinion, the WalMart corporation and the Walton heirs are the prime example of everything that is going wrong with our country today. Pure, unabashed greed and a complete lack of a social conscience. The real irony is that their father built the empire that he dumped in their greedy little laps by taking care of his employees and taking pride in featuring American made products. His kids do neither.
Well duh! You should make $15-$20 per hour for being uneducated and unable to do anything but stock shelves, make change and sweep floors.
did it ever occur to you a lot of retired people work at Walmart because there is no incentive for certain elements of the younger generation to work. why get a job when the government will take care of you? sit home play your x-box and let nanny-state liberals tell the world how the rich are abusing you
I didn’t know what the Tax Foundation was. Never heard of it before this report. Decided to research a bit, because it seemed important to know about the “non-partisan” source. The majority of the Board of Directors includes some partisan representatives, starting with Wayne E. Gable, Koch Industries Dir. of Federal Affairs, Citizens for a Sound Economy, and Americans for
Prosperity; Douglas Holtz-Eakin, American Action Forum and chief economic adviser to Presidential candidate John McCain in 2008; and Pamela F. Olson, senior economic adviser to the Bush-Cheney campaign and formerly Assistant Secretary of Treasury for Tax Policy under Pres. Bush; Joseph O. Luby, Jr., Exxon Mobil, VP Tax; and James Q. Riordan, Mobil, VP Tax.
Economist Paul Krugman regularly challenges the validity of the Tax Foundation’s studies: http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/07/25/zombie-straw-men.
I am concerned that a “study” by a “non-partisan” group isn’t researched before being announced as”news.” Is anyone paying attention to these “non-partisan” study results?
Sounds like the Board knows how to create jobs. It sounds like you are againist Maine having a good tax standing that will attract good jobs here? We have a small business and work extremely hard and much harder than say the folks in NH doing the same line of work. I am happy that after 40+ years we have people in Augusta that are on Small Business side and not working againist us like we have experienced the past 40 years!
Yay Maine! Keep on keepin on Maine State Government! It’s so refreshing to have the State Government working for the people who work for a living and want their kids to be able to work here too!!
I tried to be clear in my post, but I failed. I have concerns about a supposedly “non-partisan” Foundation and Gov. LePage announcing manufactured news . I have concerns about the diversity and influence of a Board comprised mostly of wealthy individuals who have made their fortunes in the oil industry and by advising former President Bush about economic issues. The oil industries benefit heavily from federal subsidies. The oil industry does not care if a Maine worker is getting $7.50 an hour, with no sick days, vacation days, holidays or health benefits. That worker making $225/week for a 30-hour week at a fast food restaurant doesn’t have much left over after paying $4/gal. for gas, $100 to her daycare provider, and gee, is there any money for food? That Board is very far from the real Maine. Did you forget the Forbes Magazine debacle already? That LePage told an audience that the magazine representative(s) told him he had to cut welfare to improve the state’s standing in their results? Fortunately, a reporter decided to check it out and actually called Forbes. “”I certainly didn’t say anything about welfare costs, which has nothing to do with the ranking that we do,” said Forbes senior editor Kurt Badenhausen…,” we learned later. Uh, oh! Can we just check our sources first?
Back to the “non-partisan” Tax Foundation’s ties:
“Since 1990 or earlier, the Tax Foundation has “operate[d] as a separate unit” of Citizens for a Sound Economy. Citizens for a Sound Economy (CSE) (1984–2004) was a conservative political group… whose self-described mission was “to fight for less government, lower taxes, and less regulation.” In 2004, Citizens for a Sound Economy split into two new organizations, with Citizens for a Sound Economy being renamed as FreedomWorks, and Citizens for a Sound Economy Foundation becoming Americans for Prosperity.” Sound familiar now? There’s more!
“Citizens for a Sound Economy…was established in 1984 by David H. Koch and Charles G. Koch of Koch Industries. “CSE received almost $5 million from various Koch foundations between 1986 and 1990, and David Koch and several Koch Industries employees serve[d] as directors of CSE and the CSE Foundation.” In 1989, CSE purchased the financially troubled Tax Foundation and operated it as a subsidiary from CSE’s offices until the split in 2004. In 2003, Dick Armey became the chairman of CSE after retiring from Congress. In 2004, Citizens for a Sound Economy split into FreedomWorks, for 501c4 advocacy activity, and Americans for Prosperity Foundation. Dick Armey stayed as chairman of FreedomWorks, while David Koch stayed as Chairman of Americans for Prosperity Foundation.
Did you get the part about the Tax Foundation having financial difficulties? Gotta love those economy wonks! They’ll straighten us dumb Mainers out!
You show nothing but laziness when you say this is about jealousy. It has nothing to do with jealousy. We don’t hate success — we hate people who don’t pull their own weight.
Jealousy……………Pure and Simple/
Laziness, plain and simple.