AUGUSTA, Maine — Democratic lawmakers say a Republican bill that calls for reducing state income tax rates would shift the tax burden to Maine cities and towns.
In Saturday’s Democratic radio address, Rep. Seth Berry of Bowdoinham says lawmakers will have to take up the bill when they return to work in 10 days.
Berry says the bill would gradually lower income tax rates to a flat 4 percent — but without a plan to make up for lost state revenues.
In the end, he says it would result in towns, cities and schools receiving less state money, thereby forcing municipalities to raise property taxes to make ends meet.
He says Maine’s wealthiest residents would benefit, but that it would “shaft” middle class property taxpayers.
===
There are no unfunded tax cuts. Such a statement assumes that everything you earn is the property of the government. There have however been numerous unfunded spending increases courtesy of the Maine Dems.
I am far from wealthy I pay more to Maine then I do the fed, and as you know people leave Maine to avoid Taxes If the tax rate was lowered More revenue would increase as More people would stay or move Back. You cant continue to except People who make more then 36500 a year to support everything And yes that number is correct 36500$ a year and more pay full tax rate….. Keep taxing us like you are and Maine will loose its revenue what you might ask, the answer is Anyone who pays more then 36500 a yr And then really be in debt Like California and N.Y . And other over taxed states.
You Cant keep on taxing people who are productive A point will come when we say screw it and stop being productive
Go ahead all you koolaid drinkers and bash me as know you will.. But here is the FACT I work, have a nice life work for my toys, vacations and nice things but all you can do is be envyous and jelous Because I work hard for what I HAVE………. And you sit and complain……. BOOOO HOOOOO HOOOO
I too work hard for what I have, and I am in the top 5-10% of income earners in the state; but your comment – ” But here is the FACT I work, have a nice life work for my TOYS, VACATIONS and NICE THINGS” is such bullcrap when 15-18% of Maine children live in poverty – we can do better. I advocate a tax rate of 12% at the top rate, and a MINIMUM of 5 % for those earning over $15,000 per year. Our school systems are going almost bankrupt at this time and will be so in the near future. We can do better for our future – our children; so keep your toys and go on your vacations while Maine children go hungry and without. Do you have any sense of compassion? Obviously not – but I’m willing to put my money where my mouth is – how about you or are your “toys” more important to you?
Compassion are you serious there was no one who gave me a thing I put my self thru school days and worked nights turning wrenches while having five small kids at home with my wife caring for them. That’s called making a better life. We live in a country of free choices and if someone wants to multiply they can do the same so no guilt if I can do it anyone can
Are you kidding me a 12% top tax rate, and a 5% tax rate on lower and middle income folks that sure will attract jobs and keep people in MAINE LOL. No wonder Liberals are so out of touch with reality and with the working person. The problem is folks think they are entitled to everything . That working hard and doing things honest is bad. All your proposal will do is finish Maine off economically good luck getting that past in Augusta LOL. It certainally would be repealed one way or another by Maine voters or the Legislature. Because if the Dems won the majority back they would lose their majority just as fast they got it back. Maine is DEAD LAST economically because we have felt sorry for these people for so long, way too long in my opinion. If they can’t help themselves that is their problem not anybody elses including me. If they are having trouble with their current situation get another job, do odd jobs to earn extra money. But don’t expect us to come bailing them out anymore. Only Democrats want to help these people. Maine people have had enough of taking care of these moochers. These moochers don’t add anything but become a drain to our society and to Maine Taxpayers. It’s time they find jobs and make something of themselves or send them on a bus like LePage and most of us want.
Its so refreshing to see there are still a few people out there that enjoy their wealth but dont mind paying their fair share. 12 % on the rich is not oulandish, and if i were in the top 10% of earners in the state i would feel the same way. Putting all of the burden on the cities and towns is a HUGE mistake. Giving the top wage earner lower taxes and continuing take from the WORKERS of Maine is also a huge mistake. Where exactly do the rich think their work forces come from? Its not the owners that do the work. As stated by a previous poster, they are far too busy with their toys, vacations, summer homes in Cancun to be bothered to roll up sleeves and work. No they are able to afford all of that luxory on the backs of the middle class and now they want us to pay for everything as well while they get cut after cut and break after break….their reasoning for it, well we provide you with all those barely above minimum wage jobs…Please give me a break. The cost of everything to do with living an average life has risen to the point where families have to choose between necessities like clothing or food and medicine and homelessness and hunger is increasing. If only more of the million dollar politicians like Snowe could see this. This is exactly why the Occupy movement has been formed. It will likely also be the reason behind any future civil war as well.
Its my post about toys extras and vacations your replying about … Funny how you insert homes in Cancun and implying I am some out of touch fat cat ….. so comes the typicle replyies First let me start to you comment We my wife and I make less then 115k A YR THATS TWO INCOMES SUPPERTING 5 CHILDREN and we worked hard scrapped and went with out to have what we worked for And for any one to imply that someone who does not put the same effort in 18-20 hrs a day going to school and working and taking care of five kids can just go pound salt. Get ahold of you own life and stop saying wooalways me and thinking someone owes me because you owe you and thats that!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! IF people would put as much effort in bettering their own future as the do demanding more freebies this country would be in a better place
WHO IS NEXT BRING IT ON >>>>>>>>>>>>>
There are people in this state that are disabled, myself being one of them. My wife works very hard and i have yet to qualify for disability. I used to work 18-20 hours a day, which is a huge reason why i am now disabled. Your argument is all wrong. Nobody said people shouldnt work hard for what they recieve, but there is a point where some people need a helping hand. Its called being a fellow human being. For those that scam the system, steal from the programs, are abled bodied and refuse to work, shame on them, but you cannot lump everyone into one category because they have not achieved the success that you have. There are many others working 18-20 hours a day at minimum wage jobs and still cannot make ends meet. The reason you get the flack that you are getting is because you are taking a huge ammount of people and labeling them all as lazy, which is unfair and in my honest opinion, inhumane. I am sorry if you disagree. Nice thing about America, we are entitled to our opinion. No hard feelings coming towards you from me…You are the one that has to live with your conscience.
I have no Problem living with my conscience none at all And if some one is disabled And they contributed thats one thing But and I say BUT IN your earlier post You came off as People whom bust Their -sses are heartless and at the end of your last post you stuck my position again. You have no right to assume what I did to better my life and my conscience none at all. Because ,my wife and I broke our -sses and saved and scraped we are bad I resent that statement and thats reason I am the cold shallow person that I am. YOU have now Idea what I do with my money whether
I spend it all or give some to charity … But charity is much better then the goverment with that said I hope your disability Is not long term and I have to go to sleep and go to work in th AM
“Its (sic) not the owners who do the work…” Are you kidding?!?! The owners usually work FAR more hours than their employees! My employees work 40 hours per week while I work more than 100. You are clearly out of touch with reality. The ignorant statements of The Jealous Generation never cease to amaze me.
You assume that i am talking about owners of a restaurant, hardware store, or small business..I assure you that is NOT what i meant, and I truly apologize if i offended you with that confusion. My point is towards all of the Fat Cat CEO’s and corporations that continue to live off of the working man, pay little or NO taxes and continue to just close up shop and move the jobs OUT of country at the drop of a hat, never truly having worked a day in their lives….I think most on here know that is what i was talking about when i refer to the 1%. Small business owners are in the same boat as the rest of us though it amazes me how often they seem to support the government tax breaks for the rich and the constant slamming of the middle class and poor. Its as if every small business owner is waiting for their turn to join the elite 1%, when in reality they have far more chance of joining the rest of us working minimum wage stiffs than any of them. It’s frustrating because if the small business owners would join forces wit the working class, we could force the Corporations to start paying their fair share. I would happily buy from a small business owner over a Big Time Corp if they could afford to price things moderately. Unfortunately because the Corporations price the small businesses into bankruptcy, that is very unlikely to happen.
This all starts with 40% of births to single moms, why don’t you adopt a few moms and their children and take them off the roles?
I applaud you for working hard and spending your hard-earned money on whatever you want. The work ethic is fading fast as more and more feel “entitled” and demand a cradle to grave welfare/nanny state. I think the state income tax should be ABOLISHED.
I agree the Income, Sales and business taxes need to be cut or abolished. I agree the Liberals think we should continue this Massive Welfare Haven and Nanny State. These folks think we have unlimited pocketbooks that we can continue to dish and dole out the money and freebies left and right. The problem is Mainers are tapped out and the people we are angry and fed up. It isn’t gotten to the point of having a huge revolt with working people going to Augusta just yet, but its getting to that point. Democrats are so out of touch and so ignorant they don’t care about the People of Maine. All they care about is getting power , spending our money left and right , and acting like they are so big and tough to LePage. When the majority of us know they are about as clueless and spineless cowards as they are now, just like they was while in power. The Dems and their minnions belong where they are now. It’s nice to see them do the complaining they should know what it’s like to know the majority of us have felt while the Dems were running things.
So ObeyWan, in your brilliance, please tell us all what you would do with all of the people in the state, country and world that do not make over 30,000 a year? Would you send them all to camps and starve them? Would you put them on an island? I mean seriously, what are you going to do with all of the people starving to death if you take away all of the so-called entitlements? Will you even feel bad when one by one these people start perishing? What kind of a human being are you? INquiring minds certainly want to know.
My family and I lived on less than 30K a year just fine for many years, we didn’t go hungry once.
Granted, I didn’t have many of the nice things in life I have now. It’s called living within your means and there is no shame in doing so.
I remember doing the very same thing. My wife and I lived off my salary at Shaw’s when i made only 25 grand and we raised two boys. That was nearly 20 years ago. that was also when the cost of a gallon of gas was under 1.50, a gallon of milk was a buck, and you didnt need to feed your kids off the dollar menu at McDonalds. My rent at that time…400/ month….Now…twice that with nothing included…do the math, it doesnt add up…You cannot feed a family on that any longer, hell, most people are having a hard enough time having anything left over for food after paying for gas to get the to WORK..
You are exactly right. We left Maine, and took all our employees with us, in part because Maine taxed us right out of the state. The other reason was the growing number of sex offenders being sent to Maine by other states and how Maine was using our tax dollars to give them instant free food and housing. Our business was generating millions that we were spending on our Maine employees, Maine products and services and Maine charities of OUR choice. Maine now gets zero of those millions. Florida businesses benefit from our hard work now. Maine’s government had its hands far too deep our pockets and was spending our hard earned money on free food and housing for child rapists from other states. Leaving Maine was a no-brainier.
“It is a paradoxical truth that tax rates are too high and tax revenues are too low and the soundest way to raise the revenues in the long run is to cut the rates now … Cutting taxes now is not to incur a budget deficit, but to achieve the more prosperous, expanding economy which can bring a budget surplus.” – John F. Kennedy, Nov. 20, 1962
“It is no contradiction – the most important single thing we can do to stimulate investment in today’s economy is to raise consumption by major reduction of individual income tax rates.”
– John F. Kennedy, Jan. 21, 1963
JFK was wrong then and it would be wrong now.Cutting taxes without raising revenue has been tried and failed.. over and over.This will starve towns of revenue so they will need to raise local taxes.It will be another unfunded liabilty on the comunity you live in.The property tax is one of the unfairest of all.Based not on what you make , but the value of the property you own.Those who have “scraped and saved’ all their lives, but are now on a fixed income will now be paying much higher local taxes.Roads will not be as well kept, plowed, and other services curtailed.This is just another backdoor attempt at TABOR.Of course ,everyone would like to pay less taxes, but remember , if it sounds to good to be true,it probbly is.
If in addressing current political issues you’re going to quote a president from 60 years ago then I’ll assume you won’t mind dropping back another 60 years to quote another, this time a Republican:
“I believe in a graduated income tax on big fortunes, and in another tax which is far more easily collected and far more effective — a graduated inheritance tax on big fortunes, properly safeguarded against evasion and increasing rapidly in amount with the size of the estate.” (Theodore Roosevelt, 1910)
and:
“If I were an employee, a working man… or a wage earner of any sort, I undoubtedly would join a union of my trade… I believe in the union and I believe that all men are morally bound to help to the extent of their powers in the common interests advanced by the union.” (Theodore Roosevelt, 1912)
More closely regarding LePage’s scurilous words, Roosevelt said:
“[E]xactly as the public man who commits a crime against the public is one of the worst criminals, so, close upon his heels in the race for iniquitous distinction, comes the man who falsely charges the public servant with outrageous wrongdoing; whether it is done with foul-mouthed and foolish directness in the vulgar and violent party organ, or with sarcasm, innuendo, and the half-truths that are worse than lies, in some professed organ of independence.” (Theodore Roosevelt, 1883)
and:
“The most important single ingredient in the formula of success is knowing how to get along with people.” (Theodore Roosevelt, 1909)
By the way, how do you think T.R. — considered one of our nation’s greatest leaders, whose contributions earned him hallowed space on Mount Rushmore — would be receieved by his party today? What has happened to Republicans that you’ve stooped to championing self-serving aristocrats like Romney and petty, small-picture ideologues like Paul and Santorum?
LePage has proven himself incapable of the grace demanded of his station. He’s the apt face of the ill-informed zealots who continue to support him, a painful embarrassment to this great state… and a worthy penalty for the voter apathy that handed him the reins. I’ll bet dollars to doughnuts he won’t see another term.
I think shifting the tax burden to towns will have a positive outcome. It should force the town tax payers to attend town meetings and thereby control special interest spending ! This is exciting news !
Agreed…..sending less money to Augusta and giving more to local municipalities is a trade-off I would like to see myself….
The only thing I would add is they need to fix Baldy’s LD 1 law which is a joke because Dems along wiht him rushed it through because of TABOR and the TAX CAP were both on the ballot. We need real spending caps at all levels (State , County, Local, School Districts). It should not be that you can easily go over these caps by a simple vote. That way you don’t go having these meetings filled with Government Employees etc. just to come in and help raise people’s taxes. You end up getting real participation from folks who work and pay the bills. You also force these departments to consolidate, school programs like High School Sports, Special Ed, Administration etc. to consolidate to create real savings for Maine Taxpayers.
Yes, the choice between reduced or no services and dramatically higher property taxes that fail to distribute the burden equally is certainly exciting, isn’t it! Yeeeee-haw!
They take less in the less they can give away.
“but without a plan to make up for lost state revenues.”…..I have a plan….It’s called curb your damn spending!!!!! Do you law makers even know what a budget is??? Time for some downsizing!!!
The Republican war on the people continues. I don’t understand how they are so willing to put our society at risk for another benefit of the greedy 1%. More pain on the bottom, more smiles on the top. It’s perverted, unconsionable, uncaring, shorted sighted greed.
You forgot “BUT! LePage’s daww-terrr….“
This isn’t reporting this is opinion. How about a link to the bill so we can decide for ourselves. Typical BDN.
Democratic Party press release.
Lets see a flat 4% rate so someone who makes $8 an hours who puts nearly half thier paycheck in to gas would end up paying a much higher percentage of income than someone who makes a million and invest the money. Tell me how can someone get to work eat and have a place to live in the lower incomes. and still invest money. Working poor would end up paying a much higher percentage in real dollars.
The Republicans count on people not being able to do basic math such as that… and if they can make sure our schools get less and less money, until they finally collapse, no one in the country will be educated enough to think and reason… and Republican victory will be assured.
Oh dont worry Bob, when the business owners have no work force because they can no longer afford to drive in to work, they will suredly roll up their sleeves and provide the work themselves just like they have NEVER done….Layoffs, Downsizing, Bankruptcy, and eventually Closure of businesses which wont hurt the owners, they will retire with their huge bonuses and head off to their vacation homes for retirement, witout a care in the world for all of the people they just made homeless.
YOU obviously have no idea what you talking about. Where do these obsurd statements come from Where? Its is quite clear that People like you and ur mind set have never quite paid any attn to whats going on in this great country.First it is not our responseablity to worry about starving people around the world if you feel guilty feed them second look at California N.Y. and Detroit and any other Dem controlled liberal haven THEY are all FAILURES any idea why it is massive tax policys that crush any and all production and they collapse…. The policy of Dems and Librals IS like a Locust invasion Total consumption than callapse and destrution
Walmart makes lot of money off people on welfare . The middle class pay for most of it now. High unemployment is great for for most big businesses because it drives down the price of one of the biggest commodity they pay for Labor. Now make the working poor pay more taxes and the big businesses will make more .
What is pathetic is you all hate big business because they make money that’s the POINT..they have a product that people want or need if you don’t like big business don’t go there and stop ur nonsense posts how walmart keeps people down Thx for your opinion
Why dosent SETI use those rabbit ears they sell . That is the biggest rip off but yet they can false advertise to rip people off . A few years back I volenteered to make people antennas for digital TV mine were about 1/1,000,000 as powerful as the ones they sold but the ones I would make for people free of charge worked better. I am just saying somethings they do is designed to rip people off. Claim credit for the 100s for millions they give to charity when they do not say they are including the money people give at the register . Another misleading lie .
Why don’t you
brave progressives just spit it out. What you want, that right what YOU want is
total control of everything it just make you all crazy knowing that some people
have minds of their own and can thinks for themselves…. Wow that’s sooo bad
were bad people because we wont follow the pied piper to the edge of the cliff,
you can though
It just makes
you crazy that you can’t turn the USA into communist Russia with your citizens
waiting on lines for toilet paper and bread. Yes that’s a super idea
I would settle for more like Finland Socialist state lol.
Sorry but it aint us Liberals turning us into Russia…I would say its the Rich that want their own Society and the rest of us living in camps that they feed the leftovers too. You obviously got your history lessons a little messed up, but considering you arent listening tot he countless people posting on here, i would doubt that you listened then either.
Be greedy or selfish it takes to much energy to do both. It is much easier to blame the victim.
I am greedy because I enjoy the results of my labor …….. thank you I will …….
you liberal are so useless with your thought process
I remember looking in th couch to find milk money and my wife and I did not want to live like that any more so 10 yrs later a lot of work and scraping we have something. As for of my toy and vacations and extras do you have any idea how many people that employes oh by the way I am not in the tax bracket you claim to be in
Z
Kudos to you for pulling yourself up by your bootstraps and making your life better. Most small business owners have worked very hard, like you, to become successful. It is despicable that The Jealous Generation wants the government to take away your success and redistribute it to them.
Taxandspend taxandspend taxandspend.
The same old democrat mantra for 35 years.
It’s time for a new script, and thank you Gov Lepage for writing it.