Don’t pay Cate Street
Through the April 29 editorial and April 20 story, the Bangor Daily News has brought to the attention of taxpaying Mainers a tax-credit giveaway program by the state. This is just plain wrong. We have people coming to Maine to take advantage of all types of free assistance. Now, apparently, it is businesses’ and corporations’ turn to do the same.
I think the state should suspend any future payments to the investors that put this scam together. This has fraud written all over it.
Cate Street Capital and investors were only looking out for themselves and obviously had no interest in reviving/operating the East Millinocket mill. The torrified wood project in Millinocket, it appears, will never get off the ground either.
Shame on them for deceiving the people of the Katahdin Region and the people of the state of Maine. We have a welfare abuse problem in Maine, a history of private individual abuse, and it appears we are extending the same to corporations. How much more can we stand?
Joseph Kelley
Hampden
Stop TPP deal
Thomas Jefferson warned us (in trying to stop the formation of a U.S. central bank) when he said, “I hope we shall crush in its birth the aristocracy of our moneyed corporations which dare already to challenge our government to a trial by strength, and bid defiance to the laws of our country.” I believe this relates to the international trade agreement proposal called the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which is designed to favor “moneyed interests” over the public good. Such a trade deal would be the death of democracy.
The TPP trade deal, going through Congress right now, was negotiated in secrecy over the past seven years with the President Barack Obama White House and corporate lobbyists, and it is largely unnoticed by the public. When it is mentioned by the mainstream media pundits or the president, the spin of these proponents is to call anyone “ignorant” who tries to shine a light on it. Right now, the “moneyed interests” are in total control.
From the various egregious pieces that have been leaked, the one that particularly bothers me gives special privileges and rights to foreign and domestic corporations over the public good. It gives corporations a right to sue governments for access to resources they believe would profit them but are out of their reach because of health, environmental or other laws that stand in their way.
It is time to end this secret trade deal and to expose this example of unbridled corporate greed to the public.
Chris Stark
Winterport
Wrong budget priorities
I am deeply concerned by the priorities reflected in our governor’s proposed budget. First, as a taxpayer, I am comfortable with being a contributor to a progressive income tax. I believe it is the fairest of the various tax options; those who benefit most from the infrastructure of Maine’s economy should pay more. In contrast, sales tax is regressive and affects the poor far more than the wealthy. And the reality is, Maine is huge and our population is small, so our taxes will inevitably be significant if we are to have a livable, civilized state.
Secondly, the quality of education in Maine should be high and consistent regardless of the wealth of a particular town. I am opposed to cuts in revenue sharing for that reason and others. It might help if the governor and others in government learned to talk about education as an investment rather than a cost.
Thirdly, I am opposed to further cuts in business taxes. I believe location, access to trained workers, technological infrastructure, and ease of transporting goods or services to markets are much more important than taxes. Furthermore, shifting taxes from businesses to hospitals and other nonprofits makes no sense to me.
I hope the governor and our representatives in the Legislature will be flexible and open to other ideas as they work on the budget. There is a better plan out there already and time yet to develop even more effective and compassionate use of our resources.
Jim Owen
Belfast
Fast Track flaws
Fast Track (also known as Trade Promotional Authority) is a procedure that delegates away Congress’ constitutional trade authority to the president. The Hatch-Ryan Trade Promotion Authority bill also explicitly grandfathers in Fast Track coverage for the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement.
This is the same Fast Track that got us into past job-killing trade agreements and our $912 billion trade deficit. Fast Track for TPP will make it easier for corporations to send Maine jobs overseas and will undermine our wages by forcing Americans (including but certainly not limited to New Balance shoemakers) to compete with Vietnamese workers making 56 cents per hour. Despite the hype, these free trade agreements have not resulted in jobs for Maine.
The TPP also contains “investor state dispute settlement” chapters in them. This allows corporations to sue nation states for laws that were democratically enacted at a town/local and state level-bypassing the democratic process. The deleterious effect of TPP on Maine’s dairy industry has already been assessed. But other directives such as requiring food to be sourced locally are considered “localization barriers to trade.” This is clearly a concern for Maine.
Ask your congressional legislator to publicly oppose the Ryan-Hatch Fast Track bill.
Martha Spiess
Freeport
Minimum wage ideology
The bedrock of Republican ideology is free markets where no laws should be passed to hinder business growth and profits. Our Republican governor, Paul LePage, wants to pass a law that would outlaw the raising of the minimum wage by towns.
It is quite evident that a family of three or four cannot survive on the present level of our minimum wage. As time goes on, the cost of living increases. To live at a sustainable quality of life, wages have to increase accordingly. It’s a basic economic fact.
The rich cannot get richer and richer while the majority of workers get poorer and poorer. Society just cannot sustain itself if this becomes the status quo. In the long run, everyone loses.
What I find mystifying is how a near majority of Republican voters would agree with the governor. Surely, they are not all of the rich class. There must be minimum wage earners in this group, yet they vote for Republicans who then level this austerity on them even more. Why would they support and agree with an ideology that would keep them perpetually poor?
James Chasse
St Agatha