Gov. LePage Says Maine’s Tax Surplus Should Be Returned to Maine Taxpayers

 

Incoming Democrats Have Other Plans For Our Money, However

 

 

By:  David Deschesne

Fort Fairfield Journal, December 21, 2018

 

AUGUSTA, Maine—Outgoing two-term governor, Paul LePage has submitted a budget recommendation for Maine’s new governor, who will take office next month.  A key feature of the budget is a suggestion by LePage to return some of the state’s tax surpluses back to the taxpayers directly in the form of tax cuts.  The incoming Democrats, who believe they know how to spend our money better than we do, have indicated they have no interest in returning the money to its rightful owners.

   The LePage administration has already cut taxes by 20 percent to more than half a million Mainers—nearly half the population of the State (those who are actually working and earning their own money) and was still able to accrue surpluses.  Incoming governor, Janet Mills, who is a raging left-wing socialist Democrat, is expected to quickly reverse that trend and increase taxes to fund all of her, and the Democrat party’s, pet socialist projects.  In a sense, this new cycle of legislators, with the Democrats holding the majority vote and the governor’s office, the children have been given their parents’ checkbook and savings account and the party is now just beginning as they plan on recklessly spending some serious coin.

    “Cutting taxes for Maine families has proven to be an excellent policy decision. Despite this cut, we are taking in record tax revenues. That's why I've recommended to Governor-elect Mills that she return surplus tax dollars to Maine families in the form of new income-tax reductions,” said Governor LePage.  “We must always remember that the revenue we receive in taxes is due to the hard work of Maine's people. That's why I'm advocating for accelerating the tax cuts contained in our budget proposal.”

   Democrat governor, Janet Mills, and her accomplices in the House and Senate don’t believe people who work and earn money should be allowed to keep it.  Instead, they believe in the Marxist “redistribution of wealth scheme” enforced by an authoritarian police state in the former Soviet Union and other failed communist states throughout history.

   One of the key programs Mills plans on frittering away the State’s savings on is an unprecedented Medicaid expansion under the auspices of MaineCare, which still needs federal approval.  However, once that money is gone, she’ll have no choice but to increase taxes on all Mainers in order to keep that freebie program going so her supporters will be in a mood to continue to vote for the Democrat party in the future.

      Instead of using the budget surplus to fund Medicaid expansion, Governor LePage suggests an increase to the hospital tax to provide sustainable funding for these ongoing costs.  The hospital tax has already been used successfully in other states to fund their own states' respective health care programs and the hospitals receive most of that money back from the feds at the end of the day.

   “The hospital tax is how the federal government envisioned states would pay for their share of the costs of Medicaid expansion. In Maine, we estimate this to be about $100 million per year,” said LePage.  “Since expansion revenues to Maine hospitals are expected to well exceed $100 million, this hospital tax makes sense.”

   Democrats have also stated they want to use the States surplus money to fully fund revenue sharing at 5 percent, rather than the 2 percent the towns have received for the past 6 years.  What this means is the towns and cities in Maine will receive the money, rather than the taxpayers, with the idea that they will be able to lower the mil rate on their own local taxpayers.  However, there is no guarantee that the local governments will cut property taxes, never mind dollar-for-dollar, if revenue sharing is increased.  Local governments, like state and federal, always seem to find something else to spend their taxpayers' money on instead of giving it back to them.

   "The people of Maine and the municipal balance sheets would be better off if the state cut income taxes and allowed municipalities to collect property taxes or service fees from non-profits to supplement the local property taxes," explained LePage.

   One of the reasons local municipalities are having such a hard time collecting money is so many non-profit corporations have been allowed to take their property off the tax roles, those forcing the rest of the people in their community to share an ever-increasing portion of the bill to run their local government.  “Everyone should contribute to the operation of local community governments,”  said LePage. “Eighteen billion dollars of property value has been taken off the tax rolls over the past 20 years. Hard-working Maine families have to pick up the tab, while wealthy land trusts with millions of dollars continue to take more property off the tax rolls.”

   As the spend-happy Democrats take office next month, the people in Maine can expect to see shrinking budget surpluses and expanded tax rates at the financial level, while at the social level a renewed push for the transgender issue by allowing boys and girls to shower together in public school locker rooms and sleep together in hotel rooms on overnight field trips.  Maine Democrats are also seeking creative ways to further restrict gun ownership so the people in Maine will be less able to resist them when they make a valiant attempt to turn Maine's economy into that of the failed states of Venezuela, Zimbabwe or Uganda.