AUGUSTA, Maine — Gov. Paul LePage says his proposal to eliminate taxes on pension income in the proposed supplemental budget is another step toward his goal of eliminating the state personal income tax by the time he leaves office.
“That’s what I would like to do,” he said in an interview. “I am not sure we can get there, but that is what I want to do.”
LePage said lowering the top income tax rate in last year’s budget was a first step toward his long term goal. The current top rate is 8.5 percent and will be reduced to 7.95 percent next January. He said eliminating the income tax on pensions is an important step toward the goal.
“I want to get these people to stay here for ten months a year, maybe just go down to Florida for two months a year,” he said. “Now they are going down there for six months and a day to avoid our income tax.”
LePage said he would have proposed lowering the top tax rate to four percent this session, but said revenues cannot support that step or his intention to eliminate the tax. This year Maine is projected to collect over $1.4 billion — almost half of all state revenues — from personal income taxes.
Sen. Richard Woodbury, I-Yarmouth, serves on the taxation committee and is an economist. He said simply eliminating the personal income tax would be “irresponsible,” but a significant reduction in tax rates would help the state’s economy.
“Where I agree with the Governor is that the income tax at the level that it is at now is a serious economic disincentive in this state,” he said. “We do need to get it lower.”
Woodbury said while some cuts in spending should be part of reaching a lower rate, he believes a “rebalancing” of the tax mix could achieve the goal of a four-percent top rate without slashing public services. He said the governor’s proposal to eliminate taxes on pensions is not a good idea.
“Anytime you create a special tax program for one group of taxpayers over another, you end up having to charge higher taxes to everyone else,” Woodbury said.
Rep. Gary Knight, R-Livermore Falls, the co-chairman of the Legislature’s Taxation Committee, supports both the governor’s immediate proposal on pensions and his long-term goal to eliminate the personal income tax.
“Maine is the oldest state in the U.S. and this is sending a message that we want you to live and retire here,” he said.
Knight said he supports the goal of eliminating the income tax, but acknowledges that may not be an achievable goal without increasing some other tax. He said while some believe there will be enough growth in the state’s economy to pay for such a cut, he is not confident of that.
“I am supporting the pension and the military piece because I think it is a good thing to do, but paying for it is an issue the Appropriations Committee will have to consider and eventually all of us when it comes to the floor, “ Knight said.
Rep. Seth Berry, D-Bowdoinham, said he had proposed eliminating the income tax on pensions instead of the estate tax cut that was part of the governor’s tax reduction package last year. He said given the slow growth of the economy, he does not think there will be enough revenue growth to pay for that package, let alone the one being proposed this year.
“That’s another $105 million a year on top of the $150 million,” he said. “It’s outrageous.”
Berry said he supports tax reform, not just tax reduction. He agrees with Woodbury that the income tax rate can be lowered, but only by raising some other tax, and said LePage is yet again seeking to cut taxes without paying for it.
“The M.O. clearly of the Governor is I want to enact future tax giveaways, that I don’t have to pay for and take credit for them now,” he said.
The pension proposal is included in the governor’s proposed supplemental budget and will be part of the public hearing before the Appropriations Committee starting at 1 p.m. Wednesday.
Glad he is doing what he promised, Good Job Paul!
No income tax sounds good, but watch other taxes go up!
How about a 25% sales tax on everything even food. Good way to get back some of the food stamp money spent in Maine.
Property taxes will go sky-high. Hope everyone is happy when that happens.
Why woukld they go up? Tennessee has no personal income tax, and property I’m looking at….13 acres with a 3 bedroom house…property taxes are $384 a year. My current home, has half an acre and I pay $2000 a year in property taxes. If other states can do it, why cannot Maine?
we have too many darn state senators and representatives!
Maine is a rural state, with the population spread out in pockets. We have thousands of miles of roads to maintain as well as government offices sprinkled throughout the state to reach residents living in rural areas. We are also in a cold climate, so we incur more expenses than most states when it comes to clearing snow and maintaining roads. We also need to heat our public buildings. Add in an aging population that demands more in services, and that’s additional revenue the state needs.
Eliminating the income tax will require raising or creating other taxes. Property taxes will go up, most surely.
We are not Tennessee.
I understand we are not Tennessee. I was using them to make a point. They get by without personal income tax and I believe that Maine could as well. They have public services, MANY rural roads, they still use heat during the winter. Maine is not the only state with an aging population. They occasionally get snow, too….not like we do, but they do get snow. They still have lower property taxes, no income taxes, lower electrical rates, and yet they still provide all those services that people here in Maine think that only Maine provides. Texas is another example of no income taxes and lower rates. You want to talk about rural roads and upkeep….look at them. They manage, too. There are other states that do exist without paying income taxes. Do some research and check it out for yourself. Two major differences that I can see is 1. Less welfare handouts; and 2. smaller, better run local gov’t offices. Think about that.
yes, check out NH’s property taxes.
Ask my sister about her NH property taxes. They are like a small mortgage. She pays over $7000 a year for a modest home. I certainly don’t pay that in state income taxes!!
I’m tired of people saying ‘Good Job, Paul’ or whatever, without giving any arguments, and making misleading claims.
Putting an exclamation mark after the name LePage is not going to fool the people of Maine.
Good job, Paul we love you.
Worst dip stick ever!
LOL
It only fools the minority…or is that the majority?
Good Job Gov. Lepage for making my retirement years better.
Have fun Golfing in your new Toxic Landfill!
Good for you, he made mine worse!!
Outstanding job Governor LePage!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
GREAT JOB GUV!!! LOve YA!!
He has created jobs? Wasn’t that his first promise? Where are they?
Hey, he just gave his brother-in-law a 68K job, and he’s from Florida!
A lot of us would like to also see something done to reduce the horrendous property taxes discriminating against landowners.
Off topic but ask your local school superintendent how much he/she makes.
Ask his family, they will tell you where the jobs are at…
Off topic but in case you really care (which I doubt), the unemployment rate fell from 8% in Jan 11 to 7% in Jan 12 . Uh also if interested, the National UE for the same time frame was 9.1 to 8.3 . Hey Oblaba, where’s the jobs you promised, wasn’t that your first promise? Oh you sent them to china oh OK!
dont forget, much of the decrease is due to people who came off the unemployment rolls because all their benefits ran out and they still don’t have a job.
Your right and the same applys to the Pres…
those jobs, he created two…one for his brother in law and one for his daughter
Why is it that I had to give Obama a good three years before people allowed me to criticize him to “correct” eight years of bad policy, but people were criticizing LePage after about a month or so to correct 20+ years of bad policy. Double standard?
Your kidding right Jon? now take some medication and see me in the am and i will help you understand we are screwed with this clown for a governor. He is the “Worst” Governor in the history of the State of Maine. Sad!
LOl I said the same about Baldy, but I was right!
Me too!
Great job Governor LePage!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
When did he promise to give himself a (Tax Free) Pension?
While it’s a worthwhile goal, I’d first like to see what the alternative source of revenue is.
Less spending to do away with an “alternative source” would be best.
Hows about rooting out the welfare fraud and abuse that ought to just about cover it!
A scam involves breaking the law. Do you have any proof, or even any evidence LePage broke the law? If so, it is your duty to report it to the proper authorities.
It isn’t about the law. It’s about slinging mud to create public misperception in an ongoing smear campaign.
Here’s what you sound like:
Right wingers don’t care about the law. They sling mud to create public misperceptions in an ongoing smear campaign.
You always spread hate, and try to create hate, carving the world into the good side (you) and the evil enemy.
Off Topic
Here’s what you sound like:
I know you are but what am I? Aren’t you a little old for the playground games?
What you claim people “sound like” is devoid of objectivity. Pay attention to the content of what people actually write. The rejection of the collectivist statist premises you are trying to impose on other people is not “spreading” hate.
I am paying attention to what you write. I actually say exactly what you say–and just change the labels from left to right.
You never give arguments, references or links. You just spew hate.
Go on, give an argument. I challenge you. Give one single argument that can be rationally evaluated.
None of them can be “rationally evaluated” by your approach.
Rejection of your personal attacks and statist ideology are not “spewing hate”. On the contrary they are in defense of personal values that we have a right to in this country.
How old are you?
No one is smearing LePage’s name as much as he himself is.
The left’s loathing of his reforms is not LePage “smearing himself”.
Reforms? Oh what a silly farce of a joke. They are carbon copied pieces of corporate garbage straight out of the ALEC/Heritage Foundation corporate playbook, virtually word for word. You need to take off the blinders and find some real sources of information. And as to these “reforms,” we are going to reform the legislature back to sanity come November and place one heck of a check on Mr. LeBUFFOON and his nutball antics. The right wingers can say bye bye to the State House.
This state government is badly in need of reform after 30 or 40 years of progressively increasing controls and taxes wrecking people’s lives and the economy, and driving people, business and investment out of the state. LePage is doing the best he can to implement his reforms against entrenched reactionary opposition from the political class. Others have faced similar problems with state government and LePage is taking advantage of knowledge gained from their experiences. One such source is the Heritage Foundation and there is nothing wrong with benefiting from that knowledge to the extent that Maine can do it. These constant attacks over”corporate playbooks” from leftists who exploit everything from Sorros to the Brookings Institute aren’t fooling anyone. They are crude substitutes for addressing ideas.
I have to disagree.
Soros to the Brookings Institute are fooling many, especially many of the folks that post here.
And the right’s adoration of him is not Lepage improving our state. The left’s loathing of the right, and the right’s loathing of the left, is smeared all over these comments most every day. None of it works any benefit to the citizenry, but it does make those doing the smearing feel creative, productive and better about themselves for a short while.
Adoration doesn’t improve anything. It remains to be seen what LePage can do — with the entrenched political class and overwhelming non-objective laws it may be too late — but he is pushing in the right direction and deserves a lot of credit for trying against overwhelming opposition and obstruction.
I’m not sure where you get your definition of scam, but if it makes you feel any better, I’d be OK with referring to it as slimy, or sketchy, or opportunistic, or highly questionable or disingenuous or…..
Ok, we’ll use your homemade version of scam. You just accused thousands, maybe tens of thousands of Mainers (aka:snowbirds or snow diggers) of being slimy or opportunistic or highly questionable or disingenous…or whatever. These are probably your friends, relatives and neighbours. Why don’t you go call them scammers to their face.
Bangorian is talking about the proper behavior for a Governor., and your attempt to call the people of Maine tax cheats is ridiculous.
Disqus generic email templateI didn’t make that statement. Bangorian did. I just pointed it out.
Now you’re committing an absurd lie. Nowhere does anyone but you say that the people of Maine are tax cheats.
Give it up. You can’t show a quote where Bangorian says anything like you claim.
I think we all know someone who resides in Florida for 6 months and a day, has FL license plates on their Cadillacs, whoops, vehicles….
Sprucedweller, Bangorian insinuated the LePages were committing a scam by trying to reduce their taxes or gain some other financial advantage by claiming part-time residence in Florida. Then he (Bangorian) redefined ‘scam’ to support his story. His redefinition of ‘scam’ also applies to the thousands of Mainers, mostly retired who do the exact same thing as the LePages did.
I know this may be way over your head, but I hope even you can figure this out.
“Bangorian” is not “talking about proper behavior for a Governor”; he is smearing a governor with continued false insinuations that began as political attack strategy during the election campaign. It is not “proper behavior” for a governor, a candidate for governor, or anyone else to pay higher taxes than he legally has to but which the left demands in its ugly class warfare campaign fanning envy and resentment.
You’re assuming your own picture of the world and your own picture of what LePage did and you are ranting, as usual.
Supply a single argument, a single reference, a single iota of evidence for your hate-mongering.
I challenge you to step out of your obsessive-compulsive spewing. But I don’t think you can.
Sprucedweller you are flailing, grasping at straws trying to make a point and you are a miserable angry failure. If your post were verbal they would be high pitched whines puncuated by the occasional sob.
I don’t know if he is a personal failure or success, or has lived long enough to be either, and don’t care. But it is apparent that the “hatred” he feels in connection with my posts is in himself over principled rejection of his advocacy.
Disqus generic email templateDon’t give it a seconds more thought msscv. I’ve read your posts and I’ve read his posts. Yours are compiled with thought and his look more like something that would come from a Berkeley Law School failure. Just keep on doing what you are doing. That’s what draws out the sprucedwellers and the 4mermainers and shines the light of exposure on their political anger.
libsussux. Posts are crazy rightwing rhetoric. Name should be banned.
Along the lines of “The more you watch Fox News, the Less you know… ”
Do a search on this phrase – “Seven Surveys Make A Trend For Fox And Viewers”
You know, LePage is the governor of ME; his wife the first lady. Don’t you think they should be held to a higher standard than the rest of us poor schleps? I do.
no
No, none gets off with lower standards by declaring himself to be a “schlep”. The accusations of “scam” and “fraud’ against LePage concerning his two children attending college in Florida are false, not an appeal to a higher “standard”.
libsuxsux. Your name should be banned.
The left wants us to think that anyone who doesn’t pay more taxes than he legally has to must be “slimy, or sketchy, or opportunistic, or highly questionable or disingenuous”. It of course isn’t true but they smear people who reject their phony moral premises demanding human sacrifice to the collective and the state.
You spread more hate than anyone else I know. You are a black-and-white world demagogue of the most extreme sort.
Here is what you sound like:
The right wants us to think that anyone who doesn’t support lower taxes must be slimy. It of course isn’t true but they smear people who reject their phony moral premises demanding human sacrifice to the corporate state.
Here is what you sound like:
“I know you are but what am I….na, na, na, na, na, I can’t hear you”
your comments resonate better with three year olds than rational thinking adults. please dust off the big-wheel, stop being so rudely hateful, and try to actually contribute something meaningful to the converstaion instead of pre-packaged, contrived school yard rhetoric
Rejecting your smears and demagoguery, like the previous post of Bangorian and yours, is not “demagoguery” and is not “spreading hate”. It rejects yours.
We constantly see baseless leftist accusations of “fraud” and “scam” as they fan envy and resentment against people who have done nothing wrong but whom the left wants to pay higher taxes.
Supply an argument, a reference or some evidence. Stop wasting space with your simple reflections and your incessant ugly dogma.
Isn’t it the right that’s been throwing around the word fraud over the last 14 months. Seems like everytime I read the paper or listen to the news, LePage is accusing someone of fraud, usually voters and the poor. I so agree with your responses to msscv.
“Fraud” is a concept with meaning. Government is full of it, as is well known, and it didn’t start “14 months” ago. There is no evidence whatsoever that LePage or Poliquin committed “fraud” as falsely accused by the leftist smears about their personal taxes.
I did not say “fraud” started 14 months ago. I said LePage started throwing the word around 14 months ago. Maybe you should read a comment before dumping on someone.
LePage isn’t “throwing around” the word “fraud”. It is all through government the government he inherited and he is working to get rid of it. That is not a justification for leftist activists to accuse him of “fraud” and “scams” he has not committed and for which there is no evidence.
The attack campaigns on LePage and Poliquin are perfect examples. Any one can go through the sequences of hit pieces and associated commentary and see the seething resentment, distortions and outright false accusations. This has been pointed out many many times as it occurs. Some of it is on this page. Like in your posts.
It is all of those things, when the person in question is known for attacking others for behavior that he has committed himself. Penguin has built his career out of angry rhetoric about people who are committing fraud in their own self-interest. While he’s don’t that, he found a way to get his kids access to instate tuition in Florida, found an archaic tax loop hole that allowed him to claim two separate homestead exemptions and hire two of his close family members to work from him.
Yeah, keep ranting from the right wing fringe. You Tea Partiers screech and whine all day about “the collective” and “the state” and spout out silly delusions about losing “freedom” and the evils of “socialism,” but you are the first to whine like spoiled brats when your roads aren’t PUBLICLY plowed and the potholes on your stree are not PUBLICLY filled, the first to screech when the funding for your kid’s PUBLIC SCHOOL football team is cut,the first to rave about how much you love medicare and social security when you get old and are so glad it is there for you, and first to cheer for endless PUBLIC tax expenditures for the military industrial complex and the oil and gas corporations. Walking right wing hyprocrites, each and every one.
The states are hurting people as they push us around with statist social controls. People are in revolt because the implications are very personal. There are well understood concepts and principles of political philosophy explaining the proper nature of government and why the improper ones inevitably had to cause so much destruction. The impact on people is very real.
People expect their streets to be plowed, the schools not to be failing and social security to be repaid because they have paid for it in taxes over and over. That is not “hypocrisy”.
Off Topic
Tell ya what Paulie, you’re quickly running out of productive time in office. After November 6th you’re going to be little more than an overly large lame duck that we will all simply need to endure until 2014.
If Mainers don’t vote out every Republican and every Tea Party Freak in Maine’s legislature in November then the state deserves this LePage fiasco. Hopefully enough Dems to over ride any thing LePage does.
Thank God we FINALL;Y have a governor like Paul LePage. I’m a supporter of the tea party movement and I’m glad this state has finally woken up. What exactly do you want from your government?
We would like honesty from our government. We would also like to see whomever occupies the Blaine House to work for ALL the people of Maine, not just the wealthy. Mr. LePage has failed miserably on both counts.
Honesty from our government you have got to be kidding and someone in the Blaine House working for ALL the people. When has that ever happened in Maine? We are in the predicament now because in the past there was no honesty and whoever was in the Blaine House pandered to only those who worked for the government or received a check from the state. They have grown like mushrooms demanding more and more from the rest of us.
We didn’t need welfare when there where manufacturing such as furniture, shoe shops and textile/ paper mills!
Put the Welfare Blame where it belongs on those who cater to the supposed Job Creators, creating offshore Tax Havens and Sweat Shops!
In the Sixtys Welfare was a rareity!
Yes because Kennedy was gearing us up for Viet Nam, Playing dueling Nukes with Kruschev and getting our butts creamed by Castro. But that’s off topic like your post.
I was just going through some old town reports from back then. They had welfare but one thing I noted was everyone who received town assistance was listed in the annual report. Amazingly at the end of the list was a list of those that paid it back.
let’s face it, politicians are in it FIRST for themselves and what they will get out of it. Words are cheap, let’s see what they can produce
So where you going to get this person? Our last Governor threatened to veto the Democrats “tax reform” passed during his last year. That bill by its third year would have given the top 1% a $34 million tax cut while the remaining 99% got a $3.5 million tax increase but that was not his objection. He wanted golf & and skiing exempted from sales tax.
Even if their wrong right?
Wow aren’t you a control freak. Guess you don’t believe in a two party system. It’s either your way or the highway.
Large – he is now even bigger that the Governor of New Jersey and that is large:)
could you look at guideline number two please…thank you
and your point is?
That is very insensitive of you, matter of fact it’s bullying. Do you usually make fun of people who are overweight?
Off Topic still
Tell me, what has he done that is so horrible?
Doesn’t change the fact that he paid in-State tuition for his kids while he lived in Maine.
So what?
That’s a scam.
“Scam” has become a favorite but meaningless slogan for leftists who want people to pay more taxes and resent them with seething hatred for not paying more.
Paul LePage personally living in Maine was not the issue in Florida. His wife was a Florida resident living there most of the time in a home she owned and taking care of her ailing mother. The two children in college at the time were Florida residents.
The situation was complex enough for politically motivated exploitation of technicalities to try to manufacture a scandal during the campaign.
Whatever the outcome in these legal battles as people try to legally protect their own assets it does not imply “fraud” and “scam”. Rejecting leftist premises in their demands to pay higher taxes than one has to is not a “scam”.
Your posts are always the same, you claim anyone who is not on your side is full of hate. This is what you sound like:
All right-wingers use meaningless slogans and resent anyone who challenges them with seething hatred.
Anyway, If Ms. LePage was a Florida resident, why does Florida claim she was not:
“Ann LePage, wife of Republican gubernatorial candidate Paul LePage, has been ordered to pay $1,400 in back property taxes and penalties in Florida for improperly receiving a permanent-resident tax exemption on her home there.”
The resentment, envy and hatred you show is in your own writing. You can’t stop smearing and misrepresenting people while ignoring the content of what they say and write.
Actually, I think you are particularly full of hate–and I like to do nothing but rewrite your own words from another perspective, to show people that you do not supply arguments, you do not supply references, and all you do is rant–about the evil left side and how much they are full of hate.
And I will keep calling you out, because if hate-mongers like you get in charge, this country is lost.
I believe in the motto, Do Unto Others As You Would Have Them Do Unto You —
So I ask you, Stop calling all liberals evil and sowing darkness.
Stop making things up and misrepresenting people and what they write. You are not “calling out” anyone. You are personally harassing..
Stating a fact is nor smearing and misrepresenting. You seem to have a lot of venom stored up to defend the indefensible. The fact that Ann LePage was declared a NON-RESIDENT of Florida and required to pay back taxes based on what would have been in other cases called blatant fraud, is a fact which you cannot deny or cover up. That basis was also how the LePage children qualified for in-state tuition in Florida, again, an indiputable fact. No matter how you spin it and try to accuse others of misrepresentation, it is STILL A FACT.
The accusations of “fraud” and “scam” are false and have been known to be false for a very long time. They are not facts. They are the result of ongoing mudslinging. This has been cited many times, such as this page at http://bangor-launch.newspackstaging.com/2012/03/18/politics/lepage-takes-step-toward-eliminating-personal-income-tax/#comment-468631987
http://www.pressherald.com/news/jamaican-joined-lepage-household-as-teen_2011-01-16.html
Reality is Lepage plays ALL the crooked angles and I dont mean Golf!
OFF TOPIC, NAUGHTY
I can see why she wants to live in Florida while he is in Maine. To get very far away from HIM.
Off topic
Off Topic
Unless you know more about the children than the rest of us, in Florida a student can be dependent and get the in-state-tuition rate if they fit certain criteria and take the steps required for it, regardless of where the parent lives. I don’t know if the children fit all of their criteria, but I know that schools like money and they will do everything they can to get all they can from the student.
I expect there are thousands of out of state kids in Maine right now paying “in-state” tuition.
Your argument:
I think other people do it (though I can’t prove it); therefore, it’s okay if our Governor does it.
Counterargument: Even if other people do it (which you haven’t shown), the Governor should be help to the highest ethical standard.
Please don’t tell me what my argument is.
Strawman arguments =Losers mentatlity.
You just wouldnt be happy with out something to argue about would you ?Are you one of them people who have to have constant strife or your day is not complete?If you say no then your posts seeem to reflect that is your need
This is great news, I want to see Maine go bankrupt under LePage. See Maine’s Bonds soar to 30% interest like Greece. Never be able to get a loan again. Bet LePage don’t even know what a Junk Bond is. Maine will also be Junk.
Have you driven around the state lately, it’s already pretty junky. Hopefully Paul LaPage can turn it around.
Your right Maine is pretty junky, but with this, it will get even junkier.
You seem fairly intelligent so this should be right up your alley. I’m sure you realize what effect the GDP has in the state of the overall economy so for your perusal I offer the annual rates of Maines GDP in Billions of $ under the last term of Gov. Baldachi and Lepages term so far: 04 $46 B, 05 $46 B, 06 $46 B, 07 $46 B, 08 $46B, 09 $45B, 10 $46 B 11 $47B and finally projected for 2012 $48B. So it looks like you won’t get your wish this year of bankruptcy. Sorry
Greece is having issues because they levy excessive taxes, and have unsustainable spending.
Low taxes, and a balanced budget wont get us there….sorry.
WOW – Your statement is a carbon copy of Rush Limbaugh’s hopes for Obama policies !!
Amazing ! Feel better ?
Actually Mrs. LePage was not cleared as you say. She paid fines and back taxes to authorities in Florida in regards to that matter. No one was cleared.
http://www.pressherald.com/news/florida-county-tells-ann-lepage-to-pay-_1400_2010-09-24.html
The article you cited is one of the original hit pieces during the campaign. It does not report the outcome.
”
Ann LePage, wife of Republican gubernatorial candidate Paul LePage, has been ordered to pay $1,400 in back property taxes and penalties in Florida for improperly receiving a permanent-resident tax exemption on her home there.” She paid them and if you want proof I suggest you consult the Volusia County Property Appraiser’s website to see if there are any liens placed against the property.
The article you cited did not say she paid them or what the final outcome was after the accusation was subsequently contested.
Off Topic
I read your link. Unless I missed something, she was not fined. She only paid $1400 in back taxes. Did you add the part about her paying a fine, to enhance the post? Or did I actually miss it in the news story?
Are you saying she was ignorant of Florida’s law?
I said the news story said nothing about her being fined or penalized. 4mermainer said she was fined. And than he attached a link to the PPH to back up his statement. I then went to the PPH link to read it. It said nothing about her being fined as 4mermainer said. He made it up. Now where did you come up with “”Are you saying she was ignorant of Florida law?” You aren’t making any sense.
Wake up and pay attention to the thread.
FLORIDA COUNTY TELLS ANN LEPAGE TO PAY $1400
“Ann LePage, wife of Republican gubernatorial candidate Paul LePage, has been ordered to pay $1,400 in back property taxes and penalties in Florida for improperly receiving a permanent-resident tax exemption on
her home there.”
http://www.pressherald.com/news/florida-county-tells-ann-lepage-to-pay-_1400_2010-09-24.html
PS: STOP EDITING YOUR POSTS TO RADICALLY ALTER THE ORIGINAL CONTENT
Off Topic (and stop yelling please)
Keep linking to an older article with the accusation, and I’ll keep linking to the more recent article where she is cleared.
http://www.onlinesentinel.com/news/lepage-homestead-exemption-cleared-in-florida_2010-10-25.html
In the article you supply, LePage admits to getting a Maine exemption “in error.” All kinds of tricky-dicky stuff, on and on, with LePage.
I still find that tidbit interesting…I just do not understand how someone honestly makes mistakes with the homestead exemption. The application is very clear about the requirements and so simple a monkey could fill it out.
If you deal with accountants this is the sort of mistake that they make all the time. They sometimes make assumptions for you. You are ultimately responsible but that doesn’t mean mistakes aren’t made.
The Governor, or someone attempting to be Governor, should be held to the highest standards. Mistakes by such people can affect us all. If indeed it was a mistake LePage made on his home exemption, not an attempt to cheat.
they don’t effect anyone… Get over it.
What about Timothy Geithner and other members of the Obama Administration who have not paid their taxes but are still in office. What hypocrites and a double standard that all of you Liberals have.
If you think there is corruption on only one side of the aisle in this country, you are naive.
They are both corrupt but the GOP is much much worse. They only care about the rich. At least the Dems stand up to those GOP efforts or we’d all be so much more worse off.
Only a hypocrite defends his side by pointing to others. When you can’t defend Cat, that’s what you do. TWO WRONGS DOES NOT EQUAL A RIGHT.
You are still quoting from out of date articles about the original false accusations. This has been pointed out several times now.
You must work for a liberal rag you have the same lingo and any mud slinging and you are shure to participate like your above post is really earth shattering maybe you should change your name to mud slinger
Off Topic
More barbaric behavior. When you consider the atrocities. it is easy to conclude
that in many ways mankind hasn’t advanced all that far beyond the
entrances to their caves judging from the hatred spewed in these comments.
Yes, she was cleared. How convenient that you go back to an older article.
http://bangor-launch.newspackstaging.com/2010/10/25/politics/lepages-cleared-in-florida-tax-case/
Santorum did the same thing, it’s okay if you’re in that party. If you have to cheat to ‘consrerve’ SO BE IT
‘consrerve’ ??????
*********************
What does that mean ? Is that something else the Libs want income earners to pay for ?
Well aren’t we a clever conservaturd. I could buy and sell you, sweetie, Katsia
As a state retiree, I would have preferred LePage leaving my retirement COLA alone. I have paid taxes all of my life and expect to do so for the rest of my life. I have no problem with taxes so long as they are fair and equitable. Giving tax breaks without the revenue to cover them is irresponsible.
Revenue doesn’t “cover” tax reductions, it pays for the spending. Tax reductions are not spending. Unless some other tax is raised then spending must be curtailed. The budget must be balanced by law.
If revenues are reduced by tax reductions, then there has be an offset. All I see LePage doing is reducing taxes and increasing spending. He doesn’t seem able to see the complete picture.
A net reduction in taxes must be accompanied by a net reduction in spending. The reports you see about changes in some spending and taxes don’t tell you what the net result is, which by law must be in balance. He is well aware of that.
Is he? You must be very closely connected with LePage to know that for a fact because there is nothing in his legislation that reflects any knowledge of this fact.
When ever a conservative makes a claim the liberals yell “where’s your sources” “prove it” “on what do you base that fact?” and we gladly present them. How about one of you kindly let us know where you get yours?
Why would you think the administration isn’t aware of the legal requirement to balance the budget? They deal with that all the time. No one has to be connected to the governor to know that.
Look at the present budget that LePage has submitted to the Legislature. It is not balanced. What he has requested is that the implementation of the tax cuts be delayed hoping there will be a change in the economy.
A delayed tax cut so the budget can be budgeted is a balanced budget. It illustrates again that he does know the budget must be balanced. Why do you think that it means he isn’t aware of the requirement to balance the budget?
Then why are most of his proposals set to take effect after he’s voted out? That way he can feel good now, but not have to worry how to pay for them.
We can only hope that the reforms do remain in effect after his terms are up. Meanwhile it takes planning to be ready for future permanent state expenditure reductions to be phased in.
The offset would be fewer state employees. God bless Paul LePage!
As a state retiree, I totally agree with you!!! Having my COLA would have helped me a lot more than a tax cut that will have to be paid for with some other form of revenue. It is a ridiculous proposal. Most people I know who moved to Florida moved for the weather, not the tax issue. Is he going to change the weather also so they will move back! I know he thinks he’s God so maybe that’s what he thinks!!
Maine has the highest percentage of homes owned by nonresidents in the nation. They are not moving in the sense that they leave the state altogether. Many still keep a home here. As he stated many extend the time they stay away from Maine in order to not be declared a statatory resident by MRS. They would spend more time in Maine. Now if a tax cut has to be paid with some other form of revenue as you say why doesn’t your COLA have to be paid with some other form of revenue?
Do the Social Security COLA”s have to be paid with “some other form of revenue”? My retirement is my Social Security. The COLA is paid by investment income from the retirement system, not “other forms of income”. Your taxes never went up because retirees got a COLA.
This was my first COLA in 4 years, where have you been? Lol
It’s been four years since state retirees recieved a COLA and it will be a couple of more years before they get one
Wait a minute, your fellow retiree dlaurals indicated he/she received one. You now have to to show us your sources.
I retires in 2007. The first and only COLA I received was in 2008. I will not get another on until at least 2014. My “source” is my retirement check stub! Where were you when the budget fight went on last year and he screwed state retirees and teachers?
I retired in 92 and I got a COLA every year until a Democrat got voted in, and haven’t got one until this year.
The last one given was under Baldacci in 2008 so check your facts!!!It is CPA that determines the COLA, not the Governor until LePage or the legistature so your comment has much ado about nothing.
You mean the CPI “Consumer Price Index” which is another political scam in itself. I was talking about the COLA for my Military retirement. Baldy never gave me squat, I was just indicating a timeframe so your remark is irrelevant.
You mean the CPI “Consumer Price Index” which is another political scam in itself. I was talking about the COLA for my Military retirement. Baldy never gave me squat, I was just indicating a timeframe so your remark is irrelevant.
It will be five years in April that my husband retired he received a cost of living increase the first year and none since. Social security received a cola this year.
3 Pension
Reform:
Protects Taxpayers, Keeps Promises to Government
Workers
Caps pension
cost-of-living (COLA) increases at 3 percent annually after a three year COLA
freeze
Raises the retirement
age to 65 for new hires and employees not yet vested
This 3 year COLA freeze is in addition to the 4 years already frozen
..
he is not doing it…. he is talking about it… lets see something he has done
Here we go again. Governor “People before politics” LePage is once again doing the bidding of the out of state corporate special interest groups while our roads and bridges crumble, our schools are asked to do more with less, and the rich get richer while the poor get poorer. 2014 can’t get here soon enough to rescue us from the damage this stooge is doing.
Is there an out-of-state retiree that benefits from this?
LePage once he’s gone in 2014 and retires to his home in Florida!
Nonresidents don’t pay Maine state income tax on their retirement benefits, so no.
The failing government schools have been doing less with more, money is politically diverted from the “roads and bridges”, the “rich” are driven out of the state, and the rest of us are being impoverished by the progressive imposition of more and more controls and taxes dragging us all down to a lowest common denominator. That may be more than LePage can fix, but at least he’s trying despite the entrenched reactionary obstruction to reform.
And if you want to help the schools even more, pay the superintendents what they’re worth not what they think they’re worth
Whenever they talk tax cuts this is what happens. Emotions run rampant, and people make accusations of corruption and greed by the rich in order to line their pockets off the backs of the hard working middle class and poor. And lets not forget the poor children, and elderly! Those Republicans….
Just because you lower taxes does not mean you have to gut education. Many states have no personal income tax and do fine. You are forgetting that personal income tax is not the only way the state makes money. He wants to eliminate income taxes for EVERYBODY. How does eliminating taxes for EVERYBODY make the rich richer and the poor poorer?
It’s funny because if you compare the poor today with the poor 100 years ago, or the poor of other countries it isn’t even close. An average “poor” American is much better off than they would be in many other countries. The rich are getting richer, but so aren’t the poor.
You should visit Central America and leave the “tourist areas” to see what poor really looks like.
No one likes paying taxes, me included. Apparently Paul Richard LePage hasn’t read some of the things he himself has said. He has told us over and over and over again that “we are broke”. The State’s income has been coming in drastically under projections. There is no hope for a quick turn around in Maine’s income increasing according to experts some of whom work for the Governor. I would love to see Maine’s personal income tax abolished, but when you are broke do you go to your boss and ask him to cut your pay?
Augusta has no entitlement to the “pay” it is taking from the taxpayers. The state is broke because of its spending and the punitive taxes and controls driving people, business and investment out of the state. Fixing the problem requires addressing the cause.
He has to throw the serfs a few crumbs now and then so he can counteract the bad moves he’s been making. That way, some people can say–look he tried…..then brace yourself for the reasons that will be given why it didn’t work….
Baggers are obsessed with taxes — eliminating them.
For a good idea of what life is like without taxes, try Somalia.
I you were taught your history, like schools should teach History you would realize that “one” reason income taxes were put in place is beacuse the people of this country were doing very well for themselves and there was a top 45% instead of the top 1% we have now running the country … There were othe issues why the income was put in place like the Britts wanting to win the economic war.. angry bunch… but thats for another day.
It takes a leftist to think of smearing people as “obsessed” and “‘baggers” for wanting to exercise the right to live one’s own life free of statist state intrusion pushing people around.
It takes a leftist to confuse American freedom and individualism with “Somalia”.
You aren’t reading before posting again. Your obsession is badmouthing our Gov.
No, the smart folks have it figured out that Florida and NH are accessible options with lovely settings and no taxes. It can work, but the spending has to be curtailed. There are millions of ways to accomplish that, too, without fully trashing the fluff for the pinkies.
that’s an absurd response, Lucy
What is a bagger?
It’s pronounced “baggah”. Someone who doesn’t work but wants to supplement their monthly check by “baggin'” others to give them some of their hard earned.
Erm…
Anyone else want to respond to this query?
(Not that there’s anything wrong with that).
Anyone who disagrees with a Left wing radical
I believe the left in the state are exploding. They want to control people with high taxes and can’t stand the thought that people are finally fed up with high taxes and lousy roads.
The situation is hugely worse than thought because all the vacation homes in Maine (think the coast line, ski areas and “camps” in unorganized areas (and there are 1000’s) represent a huge export of tax expense to non-inhabitants (kind of like NH fluffing their income with the high tolls along their “seacoast” turnpike, their cigarette and liquor businesses and their lottery). Maine’s non-residents get little for their payments and don’t send their offspring to schools here.
Yes the whole failed strategy under Baldacci of “exporting” taxes onto people who can’t vote was morally bankrupt, and an intellectually corrupted use of the term “export”.
So – – lower taxes will bring better roads ? Maybe because fewer people will be able to afford to drive ? Please explain that one.
When Eisenhower was in Office we had a 90% Tax Rate and the spending all went to fix the infrastructure!
Then came the Republican Tax cuts and,
there went the roads!
You think the state will have more revenue if they increase Maine’s top rate to 20%? That is the Maine equivalent to a 90% rate.
90% tax rate on the rich. 91% actually. Were you even born then?
This is another meaningless slogan by leftists seeking higher taxes. The Kennedy tax cuts improved the economy when the distortions were removed and people with high incomes did not have to so artificially arrange their affairs to avoid them. Today the tax laws are so much more sweeping that a 90% marginal rate would be even more devastating; it would only drive more out of the country.
What is interesting is that tax revenues have always been around 20% of GDP regardless of what the rates have been. Currently government spending is at an all time high (as percent of GDP) yet we still have these problems.
Raising taxes will not increase revenues. Raising higher revenues will not raise spending.
So go ahead, tax at 90%, nothing will change. But you should consider asking yourself, what gives you the right to take 90% of someones income? What gives you the right to demand that others pay for our corrupt and oversized federal government? And what are you doing personally to help the sick, starving, and needy?
I can Vision, opening a factory that employees 60 people and none of the workers have to pay a Maine income tax,, That would be a 8.5% pay increase . What a gift that would be.. to them and to me!!!!..
could you explain this Vision, Davidvsgoliath? I don’t know anything about this and it sounds interesting…is this company in Maine and they don’t have to pay taxes?
Yes, LePage is correct. People are leaving for six months. We need to eliminate the estate tax also to keep these people here spending their greenbacks all year long. Many of these snowbirds would love to be able to stay in Maine all year long but financially it does not make sense at present. We need their dollars here to keep the economy moving forward.
I liked your comment.. John Baldacci once said a 75% inheritance fee was needed because it was’nt the heirs money to begin with,, I guess it was the States… Remember when ED Kennedy’s mother died and Mass ha a death tax, They swore up and down she lived in and was a residence of Florida.. Even through she hadn’t put a foot in Folrida is 5 years… funny bunch,,, Short memories, people have..
Great skewer….loved it.
You probably haven’t fiquered out the “Real Reason” that they leave!
SNOW!
The fundamental reason is that people have a right to be free to produce and own property without being fleeced for it, whether they stay for only 6 months or more. But restore the freedom and rights of the individual and the economy will take care of itself as a result.
If personal income tax is eliminated in Maine under his watch, I will start a fund to raise money for a statue in honor of Gov. LePage.
comment moved
sorry, but as a public figure and an alleged politician, his business is our business. Do as I say, not as I do sure rings a bell here. However, the only thing I can agree with that he has proposed is doing away with the pension tax. That may be one way to keep residents here longer (the senior ones)…but of course we can’t compete with states with no state/personal taxes even if that passes.
I was referring to what Bangorian said “Perhaps he’d like to explain to us how his kids qualified for in-State tuition in Florida while he lived in Maine.” My post went to the wrong comment and I’ll try to correct that. But how his kids tuition is paid is no business of mine, Bangorian’s or yours.
but how his kids qualified for this tuition is our business, because it sure does smell.
The “smell” was a manufactured scandal intended to smear him for the political campaign. You evidently want to keep the mud slinging going to create a false public impression even though you have been shown to be wrong in your accusations.
we are wrong to believe that his kids got FL tuition when they should have been out of state tuition since his wife had to pay back monies when it was determined she was not a f/t resident?
Yes, it is incorrect. The LePages have been misrepresented, were falsely accused for political purposes, and were exonerated.
http://bangor-launch.newspackstaging.com/2012/03/18/politics/lepage-takes-step-toward-eliminating-personal-income-tax/?ref=latest#comment-468538093
http://bangor-launch.newspackstaging.com/2010/10/25/politics/lepages-cleared-in-florida-tax-case/
http://www.onlinesentinel.com/news/lepage-homestead-exemption-cleared-in-florida_2010-10-25.html
The activists still trying to smear him for it are still citing articles they drummed up for the initial attack and ignoring everything else.
How is it our business unless your on a witch hunt I still don’t see it?
Because politicians need to be above the norm, no shady deals, no tricks, no shams.
Did you hear what Gov, Christy said to the woman who asked him why he sends his kids to private schools? It hasn’t to my knowledge any improprieties concerning his kids illegibility for tuition.
no, I don’t know about Gov Christy’s comments; like I said, politicians need to be above reproach…..kind of an oxymoron these days.
He said “It’s none of your damn business why I want to send my kids to a private school” Your right, but insinuating his kids tuition is somehow a shady deal or a sham doesn’t mean he isn’t “above reproach”.
75% Inheritance tax implimented by John Baldacci and company chased out Billions from the State of Maine… These people will never be Back… I remember it perfectly a day later Steven King Moved to Florida, and took his 60/millon a year to Florida.. 8.5% income tax on 60 millon dollars= 5.1 millon in loss tax revenue per year durning the John Baldacci yrs.. And that was just one person.. we had billion’s that left the state back then NEVER TO RETURN… good job JB>>>
They might return if the high tax problem is solved, but it probably won’t be soon enough for those who left over the estate tax, and the other big problem is being able to trust that taxes won’t shoot up again. The way the entrenched political class is fighting reform tooth and nail it is certain that they would continue to progressively impose more taxes and control once eventually getting the power to do it. People outside the state have to be very wary of that.
Property taxes will soar.
Yessah
Calculate how much of it would be exported to our seasonal visitors…..
They already did years ago.
You betcha!
Whatever their residence games, the reality is that he has shown a very rare glimmer of intelligence by moving to exempt pensions from taxes. Up to now people have left the state — that action might result in retirees coming into Maine and paying property taxes here.
All I see here is another GOP campaign promise that’s 1 step away from being science fiction. LePage knows dammed well that there is no way that Maine is gonna’ just eliminate 1/2 of the State’s annual revenue source without some source to substitute for it. He’s having trouble with both the BOE and the DHHS’s budget’s and, very shortly he gonna have to deal with the DEP’s when the Bald Mountain mining issues comes up. How is he ever gonna find a way to eliminate 1/2 of the State’s revenue source when the State itself can’t figure out a way to maintain some of the program’s the State,and the voter’s, have called critical ? His amended budget that’s schedued for release this week, if it ever gets there, it gonna make for serious comedy or tragedy, depending on who or how you look at it. I, for one, do wish his idea of eliminating the income tax on pension’s would work since I am on a disability pension. But wishing it and funding this are 2 v-e-r-y different thing’s. LePage has yet to learn that.
LePage is well aware of the requirement to balance the budget. Whether he will be able reduce spending to get in balance with lower taxes remains to be seen. But it’s the spending that is “funded” not tax reductions — not taxing people as much is not a state “expense”.
I can see all kinds of good things happening if LePage’s proposal comes to fruition. More snowbirds would stay here (except Feb and March) and more military retirees would come to Maine. States like Texas offer retirees double bennies in that there is no income tax and no tax on their military pensions so living there is much more affordable. However, you have to pay for AC and can’t go outside for much of the summer (plus extra medical costs for melanoma). I think many would much rather move to beautiful Maine, but currently it is not economically in their best interest to do so.
Let’s make Maine a more desirable location for all the short-hairs and the blue-hairs!
Wrong !!!!!!!!! They are called snow birds because they dont want to endure Maines Brutal Winters.
I agree with your post since I’m living on my military retirement here for the last 13 years I’ve decided to move to FL this Fall so I’ve been doing some research. Just the fact I’ll no longer be a Maine resident I’ll save more than $1800 just in property, excise and income taxes alone. You don’t want to know how much I’ll save in fuel oil but it equals 4 of my mortgage payments here. So why wouldn’t I move to FL? Maybe I should make a big flaming remark about it being King’s and Baldachi’s fault. PS I love the snow.
Sorry you’re being forced to leave. Watch out for Maine Revenue Service’s policy of continuing to tax non-residents not paying another state’s income tax when MRS claims you “intend” to come back. There are a lot of punitive problems with Maine which need reform besides just the tax rates themselves.
Thanks for the heads up. The shysters got me before on one of their “Technicalities”.
They are shysters all right, but much worse. The way they bully people is unconscionable. Here is a classic case illustrating their Alice-in-Wonderland logic of “resident = nonresident” and how they use non-objective law to abuse and destroy people they target: http://www.mainetaxabuse.org/index.shtml#itax
The elimination of pension taxation would not only encourage some to stay the course in this state but would greatly enable many year ’round Maine pensioners such as my wife and I to have more available income, not just to pay bills, but to expend more in our communities. This “ripple effect” would put additional monies into many venues, i.e. restaurants, stores, etc. Perhaps a valid beginning would be to exempt taxation on public pensions, and if successful, extend this to all receiving pensions. The additional income would become an assist not only to those receiving those pensions, but to others with whom they interact with on a daily basis. Ken
All social security and railroad retirement benefits are already exempt from Maine income tax no matter the total income. Makes sense to exempt public pensions also.
There are always side-effects to tax policy, but your right to stay in Maine rather than be forced out by taxes is not contingent on your spending money to someone else who may be taxed for some of it.
Disqus generic email templateYes, it’s obvious in his or her postings.
If you eliminate the income tax then the property tax will have to take up the slack. This will place an unfair burden on the elderly on fixed incomes and the middle class and the poor. The inequity in school funding will be outrageous. And the state will have no money. Tell me please why this is a smart idea. If you want to get rid of a tax, get rid of the property tax and increase the income tax.
Dumb idea as the smarter folks would flock out of here earlier in the tax bracket ramp up. Yes, the prop. tax would rise but another thing would happen and the spending screws applied a lot more smartly than it is now. We might even get rid of the gov.s chauffeur and dedicated car.
unfortunately lightofnorthstar, they don’t care about the elderly, middle class or poor. And besides, when the proverbial s—t hits the fan, he’ll be out of office & they can blame the other side.
Florida doesn’t have state income tax and the old people seem to flock there in droves, if property taxes would sore why does the elderly buy there…better get you facts straight before you call that one…of course they have Mickey Mouse…Maine might try something like that with Bald-Archie, he has the ears…lol
They don’t have to pay for heating oil either
You don’t think maybe the weather has something to do with it?
Let me see, Maine has the highest percentage of homes owned by nonresidents in the US. You propose to eliminate their property tax and increase income tax which they don’t pay. Great deal for those nonresidents, not a great deal for the elderly middle class or poor.
The “export taxes” strategy tried under Baldacci was a politically failed, moral fraud. There is no excuse to keep our outrageously high property taxes up in the name of forcing non-residents to pay Maine government’s bills through property taxes, most of which go the the failing government schools system that non-residents don’t use at all. Maine’s high tax problem cannot be solved with unjust patches on top of an unjust system.
Umm,,,wait a sec…. if those people you say will be hurt are no longer having income taxes taken out of their checks or retirement disbursements or whatever they get, they’ll have that money to spend. I thought property taxes only go to municipalities? If that’s the case why should those be raised or eliminated depending on your proposed scenario? The middle class pays for most of all the programs everybody else receives now as it is. Property tax in a small town or territory with no services is a heck of a lot lower a mill rate than that of a larger town or city that provides services, so how would eliminating property tax and raising income tax be “fair” to those in the smaller low property tax towns? I bet Bangor and Portland residents would love to see property taxes go away, but their close neighbors in Winterport or Argyle might not so much once they saw their new income tax bill. Your argument is the same one people use when a flat-tax comes up too. Does anyone have real solid (not bought focus group) figures to back that claim? The way I see it, I’ll be paying taxes in one form or another until I’m dead, so I’ve about given up hope for any relief from that, but can we simplify the system and make it easier for the average joe to understand? Property taxes, income taxes, excise taxes, sales taxes, estate taxes, gasoline taxes….when does it stop?
And us retirees will make up the difference in our day to day expenses with other taxes added. Take from the have nots and give to the haves. Glad not to have to worry about it much longer. :(
Taking less in taxes from people is not “giving” them anything and is not taken from you. The source of taxes is the spending, not those who are not paying even more than they are.. Raising taxes is more taking. Watch to see if taxes or “fees” are raised and go after it where you find it.
until he cuts some program you or yours uses or likes, right laddie?
No. Taking less from people in taxes is not “giving” them something. The source of taxes is the spending, not people who are not being forced to pay even more than they are. Whether or not you happen to like some spending program does not change that.
The bigger issue is that he is fixated with certain demographic Tax Breaks without any answers to the pressing issues!
Taxes are the financial means to the government. The issues should be evaluated and Tax money raised and allowcated as deemed necessary and appropiate for the Social Issues.
Eliminateing Taxes for the Sake of eliminating Taxes is just plain irresponsible.
Its the Tail Wagging The Dog!
The bigger issue is your comment is based on ignorance. I would go on to say your comments are based on a transparent unapologetic ethnic hatred for FRANCO Acadian AMERICANS.
“Taxes are the financial means to the goverment”. No it is our money that Augusta is wasting on Dirigo Health, Out of Control Welfare Programs and other pet projects that has failed. Time to cut taxes and reduce spending and start giving the money back to us if they can’t use the money responsibly.
This whole thing is just a political ploy. Lepage knows full well that the state will not eliminate income taxes. States that do not have income tax have to get their money from someplace else, notably property taxes. Either way, citizens must pay for the services that government provides.
Well, you know what they say money is the solution to all social issues.
Comment removed
Aren’t they though?…And to think that they think themselves to be more educated and hence smarter yet they whine like little kids over the silliest things..
You got that right….Bud
It is much worse than that, for all their pretense at superior intelligence and knowledge their personal smears, misrepresentations and attacks are profoundly anti-intellectual. They cannot defend the ideological premises they are trying to impose on us by the brute force of government power hijacked for their agenda.
No argument, no evidence, no references.
Here’s what you sound like:
—–
For all their pretense at superior intelligence and knowledge, the right’s personal smears, misrepresentations and attacks are profoundly anti-intellectual. They cannot defend the ideological premises they are trying to impose on us by the brute force of corporate power employed for their agenda.
—–
Your words are a hollow, empty, unfounded rant with no evidence of any kind. Stop wasting space and say something besides:
hate hate hate hate hate ….
You sure do “hate hate hate hate hate …”. You have made that very clear.
Your verbal shell game of admittedly substituting words in other people’s statements without regard to meaning or truth is not a rational response.
Poster has trouble with original thought. Be careful he may cut and paste someone elses opinion and present it as fact.
Give an argument, evidence, or link that makes your posts more than empty diatribes.
Or are you afraid to?
Give it up. The right doesn’t have a monopoly on hate. If you really had the intellect you think you have then you’d see it.
A recent study focusing on intellect ascertained that people who lack intelligence/intellect acumen aren’t capable of comprehending their lack of intelligence. It’s the lack of intelligence that prevents the unintelligent to comprehend that they lack intelligence.
Also, there is a peculiar ploy that some people utilize when they “play stupid.” People play stupid ad hoc, when they do not want to understand, where understanding would cause anxiety or guilt , or would endanger an existing neurotic equilibrium.
(These comment forums are replete with both these conditions.)
So basically your saying”stupid people don’t know their stupid” and people “play stupid because they can’t understand the issues which makes them upset because they are stupid”. Good info-got it.
Yes Clifford….that’s what I’m saying. A good example is the “fixed” talking points you got from tax_cuts_for_the_rich. He or she only “skims the surface” of the stagnant Liberal pond with the same redundant ad nauseum talking points.
Tax_cuts_for_the_rich would be incapable, in any coherent manner, of backing up his/her accusatory talking points with real facts or data. The only thing these lemmings say is, “because I heard it on TV.” Liberals who rigidly cling to this deceptive programming by their Leaders (and their peers) also have a bewildering need to believe the propaganda tripe they are fed by unsubstantiated sources.
When I speak of playing stupid, I mean…….when a Conservative challenges a Liberal to an obvious lie that they fully believe and “need to believe” and are shown the truth (backed up by reliable sources) which refutes their illusory notion/s of the GOP, they actually reject the facts right in front of their face and return (play stupid) to the mendacious catchphrases that is a constant drumbeat from their Party along with the propaganda wing of the Democrat Party …aka MSM.
You have no argument here. It’s pretty accurate from what I see.
Be careful who you buy property from, BSA ^^^
Fools like you have been brainwashed by the GOP to the point that you still support them even though you know you helped elect Bush, the guy who put our economy in the toilet. You are incapable of understanding that your ignorance helped lead to the mess we are in. And you are part of the GOP misinformation machine hook, line and stinker.
Conservatives lie all the time, they never back anything up with facts, just namecalling like kikidum.
LOL – OMG of all the people to say that !
“Always accuse your opposition of what YOU do”
–Saul Alinsky, “Rules for Radicals”, the de-facto Democrat playbook —
That’s Rules for Radical Republicans because they have obviously written the book.
Ouchie — Ouchie ! I guess I really got your knickers in a knot!
If you find you have difficulty recovering from my POV…I do believe group therapy sessions are held in your area or at least close enough for you to get to them…….ASAP.
P.S. I don’t resort to name-calling. And before you get your knickers in an even tighter knot….when I describe someone’s behavior as short on logic or a deficiency in intellect or even “stupid” …that’s not calling that individual a name…it’s just a description of their less than stellar performance….whether it be in thought or deed.
So that’s whats wrong with the GOP Katsia. It is a fact that the other side is better educated and open minded. All you havee to do is talk to a Greedy One Percenter to get what they are about, themselves. I know YOU kmow what I mean.
I’m not part of the 1% (Democrat catchphrase/Cass Sunstein/Alinsky)
I’m not part of the 99% (Democrat catchphrase/Cass Sunstein/Alinsky)
I am a member of the 50.5% who pay income tax.
Greedy One Percenter?
agreed
Not a clue, everyone pays taxes but you keep gobbling Faux Shat :) Go sell a house.
“everyone pays taxes” (not exactly)
*********************
WRONG. 50.5 percent of American workers pay “income taxes…income…income….aka…Federal taxes, as well as all the other taxes you are ascribing to those people who don‘t pay income tax.. The other 47% reap the benefits of the Federal taxes that workers have suctioned out of their paychecks.
Ouchie — Ouchie ! Along with GOPsux, I guess I got your knickers in a knot also!
If you find you have difficulty recovering from my POV…I do believe group therapy sessions are held in your area or at least close enough for you to get to them…….ASAP.
The least educated states are ALL red states. Stupid people vote Republican.
Hate breeds hate. When one party, the GOP, only cares about the rich and continually push for legislation that hurts the poor, the elderly, workers, women, immigrants, then people start hating them. PLUS the GOP daily lies and misrepresentations lead to more push back from the left. I hate Republican hardcore radicals more and more everyday, and I used to be a Republican back when they actually cared about the middle class.
There are enough radicals on both sides. I don’t believe for a minute the GOP actually hates any group, and I vote both ways. But you have to ask how we have a governor that actually lived on the streets and came up the hard way why he proposes the things that he does.
The truth is the GOP supports the country. The left supports the government. I do not care how much money you have or earn it is non of my or anybody’s business. I just want the gov out of MY life. We all have the same OPPORTUNITY you choose what you make of it. Some do some do not either way there choice. I do not HATE anyone. My people ( jews) have been given a very raw deal threw out time. Born in Ellsworth Maine I learned and I worked hard. I worked for other then I started my own small series of businesses moving up when the need arose. I never took welfare though when I was younger I may have been able to. Stop whining and stop depending on someone to GIVE you something. If you want more stuff of a better life get up and WORK for it.
The GOP does NOT support the country. They’ve stopped every job bill. They’ve stopped extension of unemployment benefits to help those put out of work due to the incompetent GOP running the economy into the ditch. They’ve stopped infrastructure bills to help us have safe roads and bridges. They are pushing a voucher plan to replace medicare. BUT they made sure the rich got an extension of their latest tax cut and have been pushing for more tax cuts for the rich only. They fought the payroll tax cut for workers though. They don’t want everyone to have healthcare coverage. Too bad so sad if you don’t have insurance because the GOP doesn’t care if you die. They push for relaxation of our water and air quality pollution laws so their rich benefactors get make more money raping the earth. They have become anti-poor, anti-elderly, anti-immigrant, anti-gay, anti-women, anti-teachers, anti-union, anti-veterans, anti-anybody not in the top 1%. Fools who think a smaller government will serve us better are just plain crazy. Sure streamlining makes sense, but crazy GOP leaders want to eliminate whole departments. The fools supporting the GOP are either rich or stupid because if you aren’t rich, the GOP is doing absolutely nothing to help your lives.
WE ALL should be insulted by the constant GOP assault on people who show compassion to our fellow Americans. Republican fools actually think that all Dem supporters get handouts and they try to silence us by telling us to “Stop whining and stop depending on someone else to GIVE you something”. These guys are real fools who think all Dems are on welfare! We are not!
Smears, misrepresentations, and attacks? Oh, you mean like what right wingers listen to all day on Fox, Rush, Hannity, Beck, and the rest of the right wing pitbull lying nasty propaganda attack machine media, and then they emulate it constantly? Talk about whining and being hyprocritical. Be all that as it may, what matters is what happens at the voting booth. And come November, Mr. LePage’s TeaWhacko Party is going to pounded good and hard. They sell crazy, and Mainers aren’t buying it.
Off Topic and reread guideline 2
Thank you fointing this out, “The Tea-whacko-party ” is going to be pounded! that is great, because I’m sure the OWS, who we know are much smarter and have all the answers for our country. But I’m not sure about mainers buying it, because the tea party had to and did pay for all the services they used, the Campers did none of that, All they could say is give me, give me and give me. So ya, I see your point!………ya…..goood luck with that!
Ya….that’s right MSNBC, the left of left cable network with about 800 viewers, has no agenda….lol. The joke of a morning show with Pat “LaLeft” has a format of love and peace…come on. Talk about hypocritical…can you say “THE OCCUPY (FILL IN THE BLANK) LOSERS’? Mainers laugh at your side.
I just listened to Rick Santorum on Morning Joe whine about and excuse his poor campaign organization that didn’t get the right paperwork done on several states so that now he can’t claim delegates that he would have won. When asked about it he just whined about the complexity of the rules and how his campaign was so busy with other things. Also lied about the ‘forced mandate’ that ‘churches’ would have to provide contraception in their health plans. Wrong! Churches are exempt – but organizations such as universities and hospitals were not (but now they are). But he just kept saying ‘churches’. He knows better. Sanctimonious Santorum, lying and whining his way through the primaries.
So LePage wants to cut the poorest among us from necessary services to give another tax cut? Oh, I wish we had a recall system in place. I’d spend 24 hours a day getting him gone.
As long as you like being in one of the top taxed states in the country and one of the top 5 worst states to retire you should spend that 24 hrs/day doing what you do best.
The headline require just a little tweak to show the TRUE Story!
{LePage takes step toward eliminating ( HIS) personal income tax}
The saga continues as lepage (64) is only One year away from taking his retirement pension at 65
{— Gov. Paul LePage says his proposal to eliminate (HIS) taxes on pension income in the proposed supplemental budget is another step toward his goal of eliminating (HIS) state personal income tax by the time he leaves office.}
{“I want to stay here for ten months a year, maybe just go down to Florida for two months a year,” he said. “Now (WE ) are going to have to go down there for six months and a day to avoid our income tax.”}
There was one signed and sent to the legislature (R) and it was tabled.
Impossible for teapublicans to see beyond their noses.
The fact that the rightest-wing of the right wing has been able to convince people that education is somehow bad, is alarming. It makes me think that the future of the US is far less certain that I could have imagined.
It’s alarming that a leftist slogan claims anyone thinks or is trying to convince anyone that “education is somehow bad”. I do agree that the future of the US is uncertain.
Santorum, Gingrich, and Romney believe that they are more intellectual than anyone, especially their opponents. That’s not too hard to understand. With y’all looking for $2 gas, celibacy, no porn, and a trip to the moon colony, they’re a living example of what the best education can provide.
All the red states are the lowest educated states in the country. Stupid people are fooled into voting for Republicans. Your crazy uninformed votes got us Bush and the mess he left us. Smarten up before you guys totally ruin this country.
While I’m sure that you all are aware, let me restate a fact: This very visible propaganda effort to remove the personal income tax is part of the extreme political agenda of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). In other words, it is a pre-packaged bundle of legislation that has been sent to every Republican member of ALEC, with emphasis on Governors. It has popular appeal – heck, I”D like to not pay any taxes on my retirement income.
But don’t be fooled for a minute that our Rhodes Scholar-level Governor dreamed this up all by himself. Not a chance. Like a lot of other proposals coming into Augusta these days, it’s a dream aimed at boosting the badly flagging Republican effort nationally to retake the White House and Congress. Nothing more.
Employment Governor ! Health care Governor ! Control DHHS better Governor. Get those things done and then lower our taxes. Cut the expenses and then you justify cutting the income.
You hit it right on the head on all counts–well put.
Well said!
This seems to be an admission of how popular reductions in taxes are. It is, and it’s nationwide, not just in Maine even though Maine has become one of the most taxed states causing the most damage. There are many sources of ideas to drawn on for legislation and legislative priorities from those who have been dedicated to solving the problem. There is no need for the governor to design it himself and nothing wrong with not designing it himself. LePage made it clear in his election campaign that he wanted to reduce taxes, there are no ground to make spiteful accusations that is “nothing more” than for “presidential politics”.
Look at all the blather because you quoted an article from September 2010.
Imagine instead if you had quoted later articles, from October 2010 which explaine how Ann LePage was cleared.
http://bangor-launch.newspackstaging.com/2010/10/25/politics/lepages-cleared-in-florida-tax-case/
or
http://www.onlinesentinel.com/news/lepage-homestead-exemption-cleared-in-florida_2010-10-25.html
“Everything is on the up and up,” said Morgan Gilreath, property tax appraiser for Volusia County, in an interview. “The wheels grind slowly, but they grind and I believe that the right thing has been served throughout this whole process. It was certainly an application that deserved looking into and we did that and it’s passed muster.”
Yeah, but in your article LePage admits committing an “error” in claiming Maine exemption, which adds credence to Bangorian’s point.
It has nothing to do with Bangorian’s false insinuations that are now well-established as false.
Keep up the good work Paul! The best way to kill a tumor is to cut off its blood supply.
It’s also the best way to kill a brain, a heart, lungs, kidneys, well, you get the picture.
Perhaps he’d like to explain to you it’s none of your damn business! Try to stay on topic for a change.
It just goes to show you that LaPage is smarter than you think he is.
Heck, I’d LOVE to see the state income tax removed, federal income tax, too… Afterall, EVERYTHING that involves commerce seems to have a tax on it – I wonder what the REAL level of taxes we pay from our wages is?
If you like the idea of broadening the tax base while raising state tax revenue, you should support elimination of the state income tax. Raising the state sales tax rate to 10% would be about right.
I think DHHS needs to be the first priority for the Governor.
Facts mean nothing to Bangorian or to 4mermainer
Well, they sort of do: they are a challenge to concoct further evasive misrepresentation and smears, followed by the grousing about “throwing her under the bus” , “narcissistic personality disorder”, and “lack of mental competence” http://bangor-launch.newspackstaging.com/2012/03/18/politics/lepage-takes-step-toward-eliminating-personal-income-tax/?ref=latest#comment-468736712
It’s quite an ugly display.
Facts mean nothing to most everyone (me included) that takes the time to post here. But thank you very much for giving me a good laugh at myself this fine Monday morning.
I think LaPage is right about not taxing pensions. I know to many people who live out of state 6 months and one day. they also register their cars out of state because Maine excise tax is crazy high.
And round and round we go.
All in 1 story even, I can hardly believe it.
1. We have a Democrat who says I supported this last year…….but now that a Republican favors it, I don’t think its a good idea, this “new idea” IS OUTRAGEOUS
2. A Republic who supports the idea, even though a Democrat came up with the idea
3. An independent who thinks the idea is irresponsible, but reducing the tax rate would help the economy
POLITICS YOU GOTTA LOVE IT!
I find that independent’s report on Maine taxation to the Federal Reserve of Boston to be interesting reading for anyone who wants detailed information and history on Maine taxation.
If you are referring to the ‘reform’ that was rejected at the polls a few years ago, that is not what that is. The rejected plan exchanged some income taxes for more sales taxes in a way that was designed to ‘stabilize’ a rate of growth in total tax receipts in the guise of a tax cut.
Don’t be fooled… If they stop taxing personal income they will have to raise the rate somewhere else…do you think it’s just going to go away ? I know Tea Freaks think so, but in reality there is not much wiggle room, so Paulie is just spouting rightwing BS to get you to take your eye off the ball.
Rates do not have to be raised somewhere else if the bloated spending is cut along with taxes. But nothing in government “just goes away”; it takes a lot of reform effort against the entrenched political class. Epithets like “tea freaks”, “Paulie” and “spouting rightwing BS” is no defense of the status quo, only a characteristically leftist apoplectic resistance to reform.
no , it’s a right wing political agenda , that anyone with a brain knows won’t work.. NH has no income tax but look at their property taxes
ya know, i love it when the right wing social and economic darwinists get screwed by the very system they try to defend- they squeal so loud
I am a right-wing, tea party, conservative, and I feel that the State should raise the sales tax to the amount it would take to make up the income brought in by income tax. Then everyone pays.
NH has much lower taxes than Maine and a much better economy. It does have an income tax, but not a personal income tax. Property taxes in NH are high because it has the same problem of the failing government school system, but it is generally worse in Maine.
There are no “right wing social and economic darwinists”. Your declared “love” of people getting “screwed” and “squealing” is revealing.
He isnt spouting right wing B.S………he’s starting to set it up so when his term runs out HE wont have to PAY taxes. Just trying to give himself more wiggle room so he dosent have to pay his fair share……seems to be a habit with this clown
We may move out of Maine because of taxation on our pensions. Although I didn’t vote for Gov. LePage, I obviously agree with him on this issue.
Good for the economy? Maybe, but without funding, the state will crumble.
No no one has said that state government should have “no funding”. The funding for the bloated, destructive statism, however, has to go for the sake of all of us.
alright, but let’s see how great our roads and schools look after a few years of this
We will have to have income from another source, I say raise sales tax to 7% or 8%. Then everyone pays, even the tourists.
Then we’ll see our economy plummet. People won’t be buying as many things when 8 cents is added to every dollar. That or they’ll just take their business to NH.
People will not drive to NH when gas is over 4.00 a gallon, wake up. There is no income tax in Florida, and the sales tax there is around 8% give or take because every county is different.
Thank you for the reference article. Daughter paid out of state rate for two and a half years,then looks like claimed residency for one and a half years. What’s your beef? Aren’t you the first one whining about Lepage trying to stop college kids voting in Maine when it’s not their legal residency? Can’t have it both ways. Your kids still live with you after they turned 18? I really doubt it.
Mr. LePage still has an adult daughter living with him – on our dime. Great job, free room and board. And now a brother-in-law making $68,000 a year. Nepotism is wrong. He is not a leader in any way, he’s an example of what not to do as a leader.
Yeah, we’ll see who is whining come November when the GOP TeaNuts get sent packing back across the bridge to crazyland where they belong.
The bigger issue is your comment is based on ignorance. I would go on to say your comments are based on a transparent unapologetic ethnic hatred for FRANCO Acadian AMERICANS.
look make it simple no taxes, all repukes and tea party should agree, thats what they been preaching, and if they have the balls no taxes period for any one and when all the below average income people dont pay taxes, like the above average income ,and buisness will see whos starts whining when the rich cars are bumping up and down the crumping road to SAWYERS barn. And the below average dont pay taxes maybe they wont work as much then the rich will need more workers. NO TAXES FOR ALL
your good
It will be interesting to see who supports lowering taxes on those who live on fixed incomes (pensions) and who is so money hungry that they would steal the food from retirees mouths to support wanton spending in state government.
It was pretty sad when he threw his wife under the bus and blamed her for everything though.
Not illegal, but it should have given us suficient warning about his narcissistic personality disorder to have kept him from being elected,
Since then we have seen his lack of mental competence casue many problems for the state.
He oughta know all the tax loopholes regarding Florida. He uses them himself.
I will do the same thing when I retire toFlorida in a few short years. I pay this State many thousands of dollars a year, and get plowed roads. The rest of my money goes to lazy bums, and two and three generation bums! I will give this State as little money as possibe afterI retire unless we wake up!
Times 2!!!!!
I will not retire here, let someone pull the dead weight besides me. I’m tired of it.
My real estate taxes will be 90% less, no joke.
I am not about to survive eating Noodles Ramun so I can pay for all the moochers bills.
It is someones else’s turn.
Best to all.
Very easy he screwed the system but his wife told I think is how it happen. But did he ever pay it back. I don’t think so.
Ever try to find a rest area in New Hampshire?
There are plenty of rest areas in New Hampshire INCLUDING a nice big always clean one on I-95 just a mile from the Massachusetts line.
AND…..
Restareas and highway projects are not funded in New Hampshire OR Maine by the broad based taxes. (Income or sales)
any state office building
Anyone miss Bald Archie?
No
NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
So, to balance the budget he wants to take less revenue in? Uh ha. If you believe the right wing’s utopia is not crushing all of government to instill a theocracy run by a king, I have a bridge to sell ya!
He said he does not have a plan yet, but is working on one. Please read.
Try reading the article rather than just the headlines!
“Paul LePage is running to be governor of Maine, and no matter how you cut it, having a homestead exemption in Maine and Florida is a violation of Maine tax law,” Manning said.
Since the issue came to light, the LePages have repaid Waterville $227.93 in back taxes and requested removal from the homestead program in the city.
They where caught in the act just like Shade Tree Poliquin!
I’m a state retiree and if he thinks this is going to make me feel better about him and how he and the state backed away from my retirement, he’s loonier than I think he is. I’m not going to fall for it and I ‘ll enter the voting booth to help make sure that his proposals to attack the poor and unions and all of the other mean – spirited things he has done. I have to live with him for twp plus more years but ,I’m going to do my part to make sure he doesn’t have republicans in control of either house to do his bidding. Just think what he’ll be like if he can’t bully the legislature. It ought to be quite humorous in a very dark way. I won’t be bought!
Like it or don’t. If he is successful in eliminating the income tax he’ll win another term.
The comments below show a partisan bias. You guys and girls all know that if a Democrat proposed this you’d all be cheering the rafters down.
He may have been “cleared” but the FACT remains that his kids PAID IN-STATE TUITION IN FLORIDA. Further, this is the guy who is governor of Maine and allegedly a graduate of the University of Maine, but his alma mater WASN’T GOOD ENOUGH FOR HIS OWN KIDS? YOU DEAL WITH IT.
People choose to go to different colleges all over the country for all kinds of reasons. So what? They were Florida residents and so was their mother. The fact that the LePages were “cleared” of the false charges means that the they did nothing wrong, contrary to the campaign to smear them that is still going on based on false accusations, and is now reduced to insinuating that there is something wrong with two of his children going to college in another state.
So, we still have these tea drinkers who believe that by merely cutting taxes we’ll be heading on the fast track to prosperity. Give me a break. That’s never worked. In spite of his rhetoric to the contrary, even Reagan realized that cutting taxes was not the answer. LePage claims he wants to eliminate the state income tax to snow birds will stay in Maine. HELLO, governor, they leave Maine because of the WINTERS, not so much the taxes. What they save on heating bills pays for the mobile home or condo rental, and they get to frolic in the fun and sun. So let’s see-no tax in Florida, no tax in Maine-toss up; pain-in-the-tailfeather winters in Maine, fun and sun, surf and sand in Florida: NO BRAINER!
Funny how Bangorian makes a comment that’s irrelevant to the point of the article, REDUCING/ELIMINATING INCOME TAX, and all the comments go Bangorians’ direction. This is a great direction for Lepage to start us towards. Don’t let the liberals bury the true news, REDUCING/ELIMINATING income tax.
Not only was Bangorian’s post irrelevant, it was also wrong. He links to an old article about the charge levied against the LePages in Florida. I do not know whether or not he even knew that the LePages had been cleared. We are left with two possibilities.
Bangorian is either a liar or he is ignorant.
This is baloney, Paulie is calling it red meat, and suckers are eating it up !
Then call me a sucker. The current bill will save this (non-snowbird) $1,500 a year.
Do you think that $1500 just disappears , and that they can make enough cuts to cover the lost revenue ? Do the math.
Don’t care… read the post I save $1,500.
Yeah, right…good luck with that.
Thank you.
LaPlague is just parroting the right-wing agenda as fed him by ALEC and the MHPC. They’re out to destroy our society with this BS. LaPlague is trying hard to become Grover Norquist’s poster child. How do you all think he’s going to pay for this pipe-dream anyway? He’s just going to rob from Peter to pay Paul, that’s all. Forget any investment in Maines’s future needs. What a missguided mission these anti-social fanatics are on.
The reason most retired people from my area spend their 6 month long winter in southern states is not because of income taxes. Most of them are living on modest fixed incomes. They cant afford to heat a home in Maine, especially after the government cuts their heat assistance. How is it going to help the states economy to give the wealthy one percenters a complete exemption from state income taxes?
I have a hard time believing the extra fuel and grocery sales are going pull us out of the hole we are all in here.
Then you must enjoy Mitt’s recants about what he thought he said yesterday.
Raise the sales tax to 7%, and eliminate Income Tax!!!!
So far he hasn’t paid for any of it. He has promised the reduction in tax cuts several years down the road. I thought one Legislature couldn’t bind another Legislature. That is what he had done.
lepage is not eliminating any taxes as he claims. He is shifting the cost to run this state onto local tax payers and private insurance premium payers.
With these two forms of taxation it is much easier to hide rate increases than it is with the more transparent income taxes we use now.
It will also shift more of the tax burden onto rural communities as they struggle to keep up with non subsidized government mandates from Augusta and Washington.
Private insurance premium payments have nothing to do with funding state government.
Who do you think will get the bill when all these uninsured people need health care they can’t pay for?
Who are all the uninsured people you are talking about and what does this have to do eliminating income taxes in Maine?
Lepage is shifting the costs to run the state onto local property tax payers and people who pay for private insurance.
It cost around 150 million per year to cover the uninsured people living in Maine. Most of that cost is payed by the state and the rest is payed for with higher premiums to those of us who have insurance.
Under Lepage’s plan more of the states share will be cost shifted onto private insurance rate payers.
There is nothing to indicate a shift of tax expenditures to private insurers. As for shifting costs to property owners and other forms of taxation, I have no problem with that.
Who do you think is going to pay the bill when uninsured people go to the hospital?
The hospitals have been eating it for years. Your problem is a systemic problem that should be addressed outside the rhetoric of LePage and income taxes. Unfortunately, we have to reverse the damage that Obamacare is doing before we can do that.
You don’t know doctors very well if you think they are eating 150 million in loses each year.
They get their money as they should by charging my insurance company more to treat my family.
It is a hidden tax that we have no say over.
That’s why Lepage and his bosses in Canada want us to go this route. It makes the Canadian contract workers even cheaper to hire than Americans.
Physicians are already eating losses and have been for years through Medicare and Medicaid restrictions. The insurance companies cap what physicians can charge them by instituting prevailing rate policies. So, no, you are not being charged pass through costs for uninsured patients related to doctor visits. That aside, it was hospital visits that you initially raised and the hospitals certainly are eating the additional costs just as the physicians are.
Again, the issue of how to deliver affordable healthcare to uninsured is the real issue and before that can be realistically addressed, Obamacare has to be repealed.
I have yet to meet a Doctor of medicine who isn’t a millionaire buy the time they are 35. If they were taking such huge loses they wouldn’t have that kind of wealth.
You should go outside your house. There is a whole real world right outside your door. Go ahead try it!
.insults are the first resort of a fool (i.e. immature; one who is deficient in judgment, sense, or understanding).
The anti-liberal wham bam slam clique overwhelmingly backs Le Page. He’s anti-socialist, they claim. All us liberal thinkers are communists.
However, the state’s first family current set-up in Augusta is very similar to Moscow, North Korea and China. Republican, conservative tea party clan are comfortable with Mr and Mrs Le Page occupying the Blaine House and the governor’s seat, and also with their daughter and his brother – in – law firmly ensconced on the government’s top payroll. No questions asked. Who’d dare ask them.
The headline require just a little tweak to show the TRUE Story!
{LePage takes step toward eliminating ( HIS) personal income tax}
The saga continues as lepage (64) is only One year away from taking his retirement pension at 65
{— Gov. Paul LePage says his proposal to eliminate (HIS) taxes on pension income in the proposed supplemental budget is another step toward his goal of eliminating (HIS) state personal income tax by the time he leaves office.}
{“I want to stay here for ten months a year, maybe just go down to Florida for two months a year,” he said. “Now (WE ) are going down there for six months and a day to avoid our income tax.”}
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impeachment_in_the_United_States
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impeachment_in_the_United_States
Just tossing this out there —
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impeachment_in_the_United_States
Just tossing this out there. In case others wondering .
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impeachment_in_the_United_States
We don’t like change, but someone has to do it. This state is out of control thanks to the bleeding heart liberals. So we will have to deal with it. Of course the income tax will have to be replaced with something else, so be it. Just hope it will be a lesser tax than what we have now….With a smaller government lets hope…….It’s working in NH.maybe it will work here…….
I don’t get why liberals fight change at every turn. I don’t want Maine to remain at status quo, like the last 40+ years under the State Democratic Majority who brought our economy to the bottom of economic poll out there.
“You cannot help the poor by destroying the rich. You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong. You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift. You cannot lift the wage earner up by pulling the wage payer down. You cannot further the brotherhood of man by inciting class hatered. You cannot build character and courage by taking away people’s initiative and independence. You cannot help people permanently by doing for them, when they could and should do for themselves.” – Abraham Lincoln
http://www.snopes.com/quotes/lincoln/prosperity.aspThat is not an Abraham Lincoln quote.
Misattribution aside, the words spoken by Rev.William J. H. Boetcker ring true.
lepuke wants to cut the budget shoudnt have given his bro in law a 70,000 dollar a year job he is the worst govnha maine has had in a long long time
What will be cut to pay for the reduction in taxes. Everybody waves their arms around and shouts, “Cut the bloat”, but nobody comes up with anything specific or doable. The easiest place to cut is always school funding. LePage is making big promises about improving education. How is all this getting pulled together in a rational fiscal management plan? This just looks like random and chaotic cutting.
WE can start with MPBN….
I just might contribute again if that happens. Which is how it should be. Maybe they’d learn that they’d get more if they lose the bias.
Awesome, this guy is awesome!, What a breath of fresh air. The prior administrations have put us to the top TIER of the taxed individuals. This guy gets it. He wants to stop free lunch, and give the money back to those who actually want to work! GO GET EM PAUL
Not so awesome. The Repups want a free pass. Taxes well used are a good thing. The reality is the economy has been brought down by deregulation and the resulting corruption in our financial sector. Our deficits are the result of tax cuts for the wealthy and wars that have not been paid for by war taxes.
LePage is a one term Governor. We need to stand up to him and limit the damage he can do. Good investments in research and development and infrastructure are things we need. We also need to develop our own clean energy economy.
You need to look at reality for a bit. If you download the data and chart the surplus/deficits you might be startled to learn that you are wrong. Download data set 469.
http://www.census.gov/compendia/statab/cats/federal_govt_finances_employment/federal_budget–receipts_outlays_and_debt.html
No personal income tax??? How will LIEpage afford to keep hiring his family members for cushy state government jobs???
Reading these posts, it is clear the liberal crybabies are out in force.
“Maine is the oldest state in the U.S. and this is sending a message that we want you to live and retire here,”. I am glad we have such a clever person in charge. I would really hope someone running our state would at least be smart enough to check his facts. Maine was the 23rd state admitted to the Union in 1820. That just made me sad.
By percentage of older residents versus the rest of the country ya nin cow poop not when it became a state. Wow. And you think the gov is not too smart? Yikes!
I think Maine should increase its income taxes across the board and implement estate taxes so that the people of Maine cannot leave their farms and homes to the children. All they do is sell them anyway.
Discuss.
no matter what he does RIGHT the left will always complain…Libs make me sick…GO LEPAGE!!! thank you for all you do
He’s not doing much right: No job growth, he increased Baldacci’s budget by $200 million, he passed a healthcare bill that implements a $4 per month tax on all policyholders and dramatically increases rates for the elderly and people in rural parts of the state on a hope and a dream that young people will now by policies (how’s that working out?), he broke promises/contracts made with state workers and retirees, he has tried to hurt unions, he has tried to disenfranchise voters, he gave unnecessary estate tax cuts and unnecessary income tax cuts to millionaires while at the same time made drastic cuts to the poor and the elderly, he’s disrespected the office he holds with his bully mouth and embarassed the state. Yes to fools, he’s doing great. To the rest of us, he’s a GIANT FAILURE.
The budget not only increased, stuff is cut out of it.
they are never happy..you could hand them 100000000 bucks in their hand and they would complain….sickening
Finally I totally agree with this governor. Income tax needs to be abolished. This will spur the economy. The more money spent in circulation by the one who earns it will lead to more freedom and more expendable income. This is a good idea. I know people who go to florida for the weather and tax advantage. LePage is right, if people spent more of their time in Maine, they would spend their money in Maine, it’s like extending the vacation season, it’s a good idea.
The latest entry in this “gotcha” legislative sweepstakes is a little discussed proposal, LD 849, to lower Maine’s income tax rate to 4%. This bill, left for dead after last year’s session, has been resurrected and significantly altered without a public hearing.
LD 849 is a wolf in sheep’s clothing. As usual approximately 75% of the benefits go to the top 20% of taxpayers. LD 849 jeopardizes state funding for education, health, and other public services and will result in an increased shift to property taxes.
This approach won’t make Maine more competitive. It merely binds the hands of future leaders and cannibalizes our ability to invest in a world class workforce and infrastructure.
This kind of approach to budgeting has been rejected by Maine people three times,in the two TABOR and Palesky Tax Cap referenda.
This “bait and switch” approach- replacing a bill introduced earlier with a completely revised text and then jamming it quickly through the legislative process without thorough, thoughtful consideration –is not the way Maine people expect their lawmakers to operate. It would far better serve the public interest for legislators to focus their attention on solving existing budget issues.
http://www.mecep.org/av.asp?na=407
A reduction in the income tax rate obviously reduces taxes for those who pay the most taxes. So what? That is what a tax reduction means. The only “world class” status Maine has gotten with high taxes and controls driving people, business, and investment out of the state is a third world economy and politics.
People should realize that the “top 20%” of taxpayers include those making as little as $65,000/year. We are not talking about the “obscene rich” receiving tax breaks at the expense of the rest of us. We are talking about average households getting a break.
I’m curious how you arrived at that?
We don’t need any more tax cuts. They work only to society’s detrement.
Older people are the one’s who eat out and spend money in our restaurants; they travel within Maine for a vacation and stay at motels; they shop in small shops; they don’t send any children to school which is expensive to taxpayers’, 86% of my property tax goes to the school; Older people are less expensive for the towns and infuse more money into the economy. Maine is with more older people than any other in the Union. It benefits us greatly. Expand this marketplace with the enticement of no income tax and people with money will flock to our coast and forest and lakelands. Washington county needs some help and this would help.
“Maine is with more older people than any other in the Union”
It doesn’t make sense to claim that taxes drive older people from the state when Maine is the oldest state population wise. The ones I know go so they don’t have to deal with winter not taxes.
I will never understand liberals always want more freedom. When a Republican says hey lets get rid of a tax so YOU that earned can keep it they cry foul?
You won’t find freedom in a lawless, ungoverned society anymore than you find freedom in a society that is over-governed with too restrictive laws. Somewhere in between is the best balance for individual freedom.
I suppose people will want to look at New Hampshire which has no income tax or general sales tax, but what do they tax? Here’s a list taken from New Hampshire’s Department of Revenue Administration:
Interest & Dividends Tax, Gambling Winnings Tax, Inheritance and Estate Tax, Business Profits Tax, Business Enterprise Tax, Communication Services Tax, Electricity Consumption Tax, Meals and Rentals Tax, Tobacco Tax, Real Estate Transfer Tax, Timber Tax, Gravel Tax, State Education Property Tax, Utility Property Tax, Local Property Tax. New Hampshire had state and local revenue of $9.1 billion in 2011. Maine had $9.6 billion in state and local revenue. New Hampshire’s money had to come from somewhere.
Right wing haters are like a broken record that repeats lies and misrepresentations over and over. They already think they are grown up but are victims of right wing brainwashing because they are FOLLOWERS, not leaders.
Somewhere below, someone commented on a “free lunch”. As the saying goes there is no such thing as a free lunch. For all those people who say, “Wowie, no income tax!”, think about this. Where will the money come from for roads and bridges? Potholes and dirt roads just aren’t as much fun for motoring pleasure. How about the legal system? When you need help, the nearest policeman might be 100 miles away. How about when you need a legal system to resolve an issue with some knucklehead? Without a reliable court system, you might have to resort to hiring an enforcer to get what you are entitled to. And what about trying to get something done when the only people you can find are ignorant and uneducated? How about protecting your stuff from desperate people with no other way to keep body and soul together other than stealing?
Oliver Wendall Holmes is quoted as saying, “Taxes are what we pay for a civilized society.”
NH can make it work. Why can’t we?
ask the property tax payers in N.H. they’ll tell you how it ‘works’.
wonderful.. the less taxes the better
Anybody cutting taxes is not bad. Spending money on things that are not going towards intended purposes, that is bad. Helping people who are in unfortunate situations is not bad. Spending money on things because they are in a budget, that is bad. And on and on and on the unmerry go round we go….
Says the whine bagger. LOL
great, I’d love to pay all of the non-property owners share with my property tax.