The editorial “More Jobs, Lower Taxes” (BDN, July 2) asked: “What specifically, would you cut” from the state budget?
Let me begin with the extraordinary costs imposed by Dirigo Health. While I voted for it when in the Legislature, it’s painfully clear that the federal match the entire program was based upon never happened. It’s now time to scrap the program and consider a more cost-effective alternative.
While not a “cut,” per se, the majority Democrats in Augusta have stonewalled and gutted the highly regarded, and broadly supported, Office of Program Evaluation and Governmental Accountability, which has been proved to reduce inefficient governmental spending in every state that has actually implemented it. Then-Sen. Ed Youngblood did yeoman’s duty in pulling the parties together to pass this meaningful legislation on a bipartisan basis, only to have the then-Senate president refuse to actually appoint members to OPEGA, and successive Legislatures cut its budget. Give OPEGA a fair chance to work and “cut” wasteful spending where appropriate.
To the editorial’s suggestion that “candidates also would do well to tone down their rhetoric on job creation,” let me point out several reasons Maine remains a “bad” place to conduct business, both large and small. My electric bill in Maine is twice my electric bill outside Savannah, Ga., for the same 2,000 kWh. That’s not a function of “our cold weather.” It’s a function of increased-cost legislation here in Maine and reduced-cost legislation in coastal Georgia.
My current Anthem health insurance bill in Maine is nearly twice what Anthem would charge in Georgia. That’s not a function of Maine’s “high median age.” It’s a function of the Maine Legislature mandating so many more services than Georgia does.
At a presentation in New Brunswick a few years ago, Ireland’s ex-premier laid out a marvelous plan of cutting corporate taxes to entice job creation and huge investments in a world-class work force to support those new jobs. It worked! Before the current global crisis that’s affecting every country, Ireland’s unemployment rate was the pride of Europe, and still is, with many low-wage jobs being held by Eastern Europeans since every Irish citizen who could work was being paid good wages.
There really is no “inverse relationship between jobs and the taxes that pay for state government,” but there is one between high taxes and few available jobs. There is one between higher-than-average mandates in health insurance coverage; excessive costs to provide electricity to Mainers due to stranded costs, closing Maine Yankee and other legislative mandates; the closing of a local paper mill due to too-high taxes. Even President John F. Kennedy made the cogent case that cutting taxes actually increased tax revenue so many years ago. There are times when a strategic tax cut actually increases tax revenues, and more importantly, job creation. That time is now.
Peter Senge observed in his book, “The Fifth Discipline,” that the key to economic development “lies not in the addition of incentives … it lies in the removal of impediments.” Let job creators and taxpayers do what they do best. Create. Have government focus on removing impediments.
“When jobs return …” is more hope than statement of fact. Every poll I’ve ever seen of actual job creators has painted Maine as one of the “unfriendliest” places to conduct business and create jobs when compared with the other states with which they’re familiar. I fear Maine has passed beyond a tipping point where all too many of the jobs that have been driven out by public policy will not return. Just ask Roxanne Quimby why she moved Burt’s Bees south … it wasn’t the weather. Ask Georgia-Pacific officials why the Old Town mill is closed and the Savannah, Ga., mill pumps out roll after roll of paper … it wasn’t the roads.
The BDN was dead-on in the last sentence: “A willingness to at least consider how laws affect business is essential” (to a new governor). Now ain’t that the truth!
Maine politicians can’t continue to strangle the golden goose of businesses with excessive taxes, burdensome regulations, and other anti-job creating policies and act surprised when tax revenues are down. When will our “leadership” bring together top-notch, forward-thinking and historically successful entrepreneurs and job creators and ask them what needs to be “cut”? Perhaps more important, they should be asked, “What impediments should we remove to create more jobs?”
W. Tom Sawyer Jr. of Dedham is an entrepreneur and former state senator.