AUGUSTA, Maine — Gov. Paul LePage’s bid to ask Maine voters if they want to eliminate the income tax was blocked in the Senate by Democrats on Tuesday.
The bill garnered support from majority Republicans in the Senate, but resistance from Democrats kept it from getting the necessary two-thirds support.
LePage’s bill, LD 1367, will be the subject of more votes, but the House vote against it Monday and Tuesday’s Senate vote — both with Democrats entrenched against it — means it is likely dead. The lone Democratic vote for LePage’s bill in either chamber came Tuesday from Sen. James Dill, D-Old Town. Dill said after the vote that he supported the measure in response to overwhelming encouragement to do so from his constituents.
“There were about a half dozen people who wanted me to vote against it,” said Dill. “But I had at least 150 who said ‘we’d like to have a chance to vote on this.’ I just listened to the constituents.”
LePage has identified eliminating the income tax as his top priority for the remainder of his second term. Before the Legislature had even considered the bill, the Republican governor told reporters that he would spearhead a citizen petition to circumvent the Legislature and force the question to the ballot.
Sen. Nate Libby, D-Lewiston, said the initiative by the governor was incomplete because it did not address how the state would keep state government’s books balanced with either cuts to programs or revenue increases.
“This proposal to eliminate the income tax is more of a political sound bite than a credible proposal,” said Libby in a prepared statement. “As someone who has worked on bipartisan tax reform for as long as I’ve been in the Legislature, I can say with certainty, that no serious plan would include a gaping hole in our budget.”
LePage also began to make good on his promise to veto every Democratic bill that comes to his desk Monday with the veto of 10 Democrat-sponsored bills, though he did let one progress to enactment Tuesday without his signature.
