MAINE HAS AN OPPORTUNITY AND THE TIME IS NOW

 

Maine stands on the brink of a great opportunity which will benefit  95% of its residents. The opportunity is  Question 1 and it’s on the June 8th ballot. The problem with campaigns is that messages which are complicated can get lost. In this case  I am deeply concerned that an opportunity will slip away.   I work for the NO on question 1 side and am encouraging you to vote NO on June 8th.

Question 1 gets complicated right out of the gate because it’s asking whether you want to repeal a law that was passed in 2009. It’s a law many might not be familiar with and its repeal would have negative impacts for 95% of Maine people.

 Here are some of the key reasons you should vote No on question 1.:

1. It’s more money in your pocket. It drops the income tax rate from 8.5% to 6.5% for everyone who earns under 250,000 which is just about everyone I know, and if you earn more than that the rate is 6.85%  So what does that ultimately mean?   95% of Maine people will see their income taxes go down and it will put more money in your pocket. It raises sales taxes on some items  AND  increases the meals and lodging taxes so that out of state tourists will finally start paying their fair share.  When any of us  travel out of state we get hit with a much higher tax on meals and lodging, rental cars you name it. It’s time we stop giving Maine away.  FYI – it’s still a bargain, even with the increase Maine will only be at 8.5% on meals and lodging tax while neighboring New Hampshire and Vermont are at 9% currently.  The Maine Revenue Service estimates that Maine will get about 50 million dollars in tax relief from tourists and non-resident income taxpayers. Why is that important? It’s more money in your pocket.

2. It’s a chance to be smarter about our sales tax base. Maine hasn’t seen tax relief and reform in 40 years.  While it’s a bit in the weeds, there are some really practical applications here that effect us.  35% of the sales tax base is comprised of construction materials and auto sales.  When we have a down economy,  a significant portion of our sales tax base falls with it. This expansion of the sales tax  will allow the state to better survive a down economy. It’s a chance to be smarter because there is a more predictable revenue stream.  Planning  would be easier if you had a  more predictable figure.  The Wall Street Journal called LD 1495 the “Maine Miracle”  because it stabilizes a volatile sales tax base among other things.

3.  A NO vote is good for business .  Good business means good jobs and better lives for people in Maine. The Bangor, Portland, Androscoggin and State Chambers of Commerce have all come out in support of the NO vote.  The steering committee chair of our campaign is Wick Johnson from Augusta who owns and operates  Kennebec Technologies.  Bruce Wagner, the CEO of Barber Foods in Portland has also been very vocal in his support as has  lumber mill owner John Cashwell and Bangor businessman Dan  Tremble. Why are these business leaders supporting this?  Because they have watched the effects of the income tax rate and know with more money in their pocket they will be able to invest and grow.

Bruce Wagner talks about how important it is to put more money in his employees pockets so they can make the decision how and if they want to spend it. Wagner often talks publicly about the difficulty of attracting out of state employees and how he would like to see his sons, who have moved to Maine, be able to stay here but that the income tax rate is a serious drawback. 

And, there is one other sentiment out there that has developed over the last few years which I believe as we go to the polls we need to think about.  We elect our Legislature to do the minutiae and hard work for us as a citizenry. If we don’t like what they do – we should vote them out.  Despite this, every time you turn around a decision that’s been made by the very people we all elected to office seems to need  go to referendum again – in some cases driven by  out of state special interests groups.

Voting no on question 1 is an opportunity we should not turn our backs on.

This entry was posted on Thursday, June 3rd, 2010 at 1:18 pm by Crystal Canney and is filed under Blogs & News Links. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.