1 day Ago
Do you remember when Gov. Janet Mills promised not to raise taxes if reelected to a second term as governor? I sure do. If you do, too, good for you.
The governor, apparently, does not. Mills first admitted that was a lie when she supported the paid family leave bill . She claimed it was a tough decision, but we all know that’s not true.
It’s simply that, having gotten reelected, she now knew that she didn’t have to worry about the consequences of her decision. She was simply more worried about placating her progressive base and the Democratic leadership in the Legislature, which, given that they’re all from within 30 miles of Portland , is basically the same thing. Remember when Democrats at least tried to pretend to represent the whole state, by having people like Troy Jackson or Jared Golden in leadership? I do, too.
Anyway, having broken her promise once, it appears that Mills is now ready and willing to raise taxes on anything — and Democrats in the Legislature want to raise taxes on anything she hasn’t mentioned. Mills, at least, has the excuse of a fiscal crisis, albeit one that she created herself, through years of mismanagement after repeatedly bragging about what sound shape the state was in financially. You know, back when Mills was still against tax increases, pretending to be a moderate.
In the proposal for her biennial budget — which hasn’t been completely acted on yet, since Democrats pulled their usual bait-and-switch majority budget trick — she endorsed a whole host of tax increases: on prescription drugs, private ambulances, streaming services, marijuana and cigarettes, to name a few. It would be nice if there were some sort of consistent theme on these ideas, like she was trying to change behavior or punish the rich, but that doesn’t really track. Private ambulances might seem like a luxury, but they provide a lot of transport services for surgery patients that otherwise would have to be done by hospitals.
They’re not a luxury for the rich, and that’s not a bad behavior. Streaming services? Well, we all use a ton of those these days, right? If you subscribe to this paper, I bet you use at least three of them. Cigarettes? OK, yes, that’s a bad behavior, but it hurts the poor the most.
The same goes for marijuana. Congratulations, liberals, now that it’s legal, Democrats can raise taxes on it. Prescription drugs? Well, those are a necessity.
If you think all of those are bad ideas, Democrats have plenty of other taxes they’d like to increase. They want to raise taxes on megayachts visiting Maine, for instance, a classic “soak the rich from away” scheme. There are a few problems with that one.
Their crew members consume goods and services while they’re here, and if we raise their taxes too much, it’s very easy for them to simply go somewhere else. One might imagine megayacht owners wouldn’t notice that sort of minor cost increase, and that may be right, but we’ll see. Another idea from Democrats to raise taxes is to add an additional 3% tax on hotels to pay for school construction.
Again, the idea is to transfer wealth from out-of-state to services here. Legislators are going after people whose votes they don’t need. In reality, if vacationers decide book elsewhere because of this higher tax, it will hurt local hotel owners and their employees.
It may lead to closures or layoffs, and Canadians are already considering steering clear of Maine vacations. Other, conservative Americans are also considering steering clear of Maine because of the state’s conflict with the Trump administration. Is this really the time to impose an additional cost on hotels? Is that wise? Speaker of the House Ryan Fecteau has another idea for a tax increase, raising the tax on sales of large homes — another classic “soak the rich” scheme — to pay for affordable housing.
While it’s heartening to know that at least Democrats are ideologically consistent for raising any tax for any reason — or no reason — at all, it’s never truly necessary. There’s lots of waste, fraud and abuse in Maine; recent audits of state government has shown that. Rather than addressing our spending problems, Democrats only want to wave a wand and raise taxes to fix everything.
Before we raise any taxes on anything, we need to fix our spending habits in Maine. Republicans in Augusta must hold firm to that principle. We believe it’s important to offer commenting on certain stories as a benefit to our readers.
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