It’s rumpled and wrinkled from 40 years of overuse, yet Democrats are determined to drag their tired, tattered cloak of fiscal policy out once again — tax the rich. While liberals can garner points for predictability and zealous adherence to dogma, the results of their 40-year tenure is not a lesson in productivity.
We have fewer rich to tax, more poor to redistribute to and not much wealth left to spread around. But the Democrats are a shining example of redundancy, and once again they wield the “millionaire tax,” heralding its financial curative powers. Unfortunately for Maine, the number of individuals whose income broke the million-dollar mark in the last decade has fluctuated from 400 to 750 people. This means the millionaire tax “healing” money stream would have a varied flow of somewhere between zilch and not so much.
So how do we pay for the Democratic big government template with so few rich to tax? What if poverty were the new wealth?
Thanks to our liberal friends, Maine has a very low threshold for what is considered rich. It’s around $20,000, and just under $40,000 for households. Through that prism, I guess we’re all rich. Who knew? While Democrats manipulate definitions and look for more ways to increase taxes on a cash-strapped state (that’s code for wealthy to Democrats), let’s look at the facts of Gov. Paul LePage’s budget proposal.
Tax relief, yes that is a concept, of $203 million across the board not just for the rich. Gas tax indexing will end in the second year. Tax deductions and exemptions will be brought up to the federal level, and bonus depreciation will help in job creation.
The governor will increase education funding by $63 million.
It would seem the governor has his priorities in order. He is cutting back on frivolous things and concentrating on important things, a somewhat unique and foreign concept for Augusta.
Welfare will get some much-needed reform. A common-sense five-year limit will be set in place with the elimination of instant eligibility.This is absolutely necessary to encourage lifestyle changes for those who have become accustomed to government as their primary provider. This also will help to stem the flow of out-of-state opportunists who travel to Maine to capitalize on its exorbitant welfare system. This has reached epidemic proportions.
Our pension system is now $4.3 billion in debt. It is simply unsustainable. We must make drastic changes now before our children are faced with ballooning, out-of-control payments that destroy their livelihoods.
Democrats claim that a millionaires tax will save Maine, but they fail to acknowledge the devastation of such a tax on the economies of other states. Research by the Maine People Before Politics’ executive director Jason Savage shows that the 13 states that now impose a top marginal tax rate for higher-income earners are also responsible for 53 percent of the $112 billion in state deficits nationwide. So for Democrats not only are the poor the new wealthy, but fiscal apocalypse also is the new fiscal solvency.
While others are playing word games, this governor is working. While some hide behind diversion and deception, this governor is starkly honest. Perhaps the Democrats should see to the job at hand rather than throwing temper tantrums such as desecrating memorials to Maine’s hallowed fallen heroes.
Andy Torbett of Atkinson is a general contractor and a writer. You can see his writing at www.meconservativevoice.wordpress.com.