Maine never met a tax it didn't like either

[CNHT]

Maine wants more taxes too.

Tax reform hot topic for 2007

No one has a count yet, but members of the Legislature?s Taxation Committee are expecting a flood of bills when lawmakers return to the State House and some 2,400 measures submitted by members are printed.

Rep. Randy Hotham, R-Dixfield, the ranking GOP House member, said he has heard from many lawmakers who are proposing bills to cut taxes, reform the tax code and to shift tax burdens.

?We need to look at all taxes on Maine people,? he said. ?Property taxes, sales taxes as well as income taxes, we have chipped away at it for years, we need to open it all up.?

Sen. Joe Perry, the Bangor Democrat who will co-chair the committee, said a host of groups as well as Gov. John Baldacci are talking about comprehensive tax measures.

He said he is working on a bill that would seek to shift some of the tax burden to those who visit the state. He said other states have been doing a far better job of shifting some of their revenue needs to visitors.

?Just look at our friends in New Hampshire,? Perry said. ?My goal is for the bill to be revenue neutral, but shift more of the burden on those who visit our state.?

Perry said tourists pay less when they are visiting Maine for such things as taxes on motel rooms and meals bought in restaurants than they do in their home states.

He said in many cases they are paying taxes at home on amusements that they are not taxed for when they do the same thing in Maine.

?We can reduce the tax burden on Mainers as part of comprehensive tax rebalancing,? he said. ?I think there is a lot of support for doing that. And I want property tax relief to go directly to the taxpayer, through a bigger homestead exemption and cut out the middleman so we know there is tax relief.?

Perry said while some cities and towns have used the money they receive from the state to reduce property taxes, most have not and he believes it is time to provide direct relief to taxpayers.

Sen. Richard Nass, R-Acton, is rejoining the Taxation Committee after serving two years on the Appropriations Committee.

He said Perry?s re-balancing could help lower the tax burden on Mainers, but that only spending reductions will provide significant relief.

?I don?t think we can see the tax burden go down unless we address spending,? Nass said.

?Joe is looking at it from the inside baseball view of the Legislature,? he said. ?The Tax Committee cannot address spending issues but the whole Legislature can and we have to look at this as a whole, not just its parts.?

That is also the view of some Democrats. House Speaker Glenn Cummings, D-Portland, said tax reform will be difficult because some taxes will be raised in order to lower other taxes and that will generate opposition.

And while he agrees with Baldacci that the property tax burden needs to be addressed, he is not ready to embrace a constitutional amendment freezing property tax values for Maine residents.

?I have got to see exactly what it is he is proposing, and we have not seen that yet,? Cummings said. ?That does have some unintended consequences, but I think something that will curtail the discrepancy between our incomes and those high property tax valuations is a good first step.?

Plenty of groups will be pushing specific tax legislation.

Last year when lawmakers approved phasing out the personal property tax on business equipment, retailers were left out in the cold. Jim McGregor of the Maine Merchants Association said there will be an effort to include retailers this year.

?It?s a fairness issue,? he said. ?Why should one company get the break and not another. This is equipment used by a business and all should be treated fairly.?

Committee members are also going to take a look at tax expenditures. They include state spending that is outside of the appropriations process as well as items not taxed now, but which are taxed in other states.

For example, the state is sending about $125 million this budget year to towns and cities through the revenue sharing program. The money is not appropriated in the budget; it is 5.1 percent of the sales and income tax revenues distributed on a per capita basis to cities and towns.

The Maine Resident Property Tax relief program and the Business Equipment Tax Reimbursement program are funded in a similar manner.

Perry suggests shifting the money from revenue sharing to an expanded homestead tax exemption program. That could increase the exemption to over $40,000 for a home.

There are many tax deductions and credits on the books, and in many cases lawmakers question why certain things are taxed when others are not. For example, rentals of DVD movies are taxed but ski lift tickets are not. Both are what tax analysts consider amusements.

And a group established by Baldacci is recommending raising state taxes on snacks, tobacco products, beer and wine and soft drinks and syrups to help pay for the Dirigo Health program.

?We have to look at all of this,? Perry said. ?We need to rebalance our taxes and lessen the burden on Maine people. And yes, we have got a lot of work ahead.?

[aries]

Isn't maine the highest taxed state in the union already? Per capita, that is.

[CNHT]

Isn't maine the highest taxed state in the union already? Per capita, that is.

Correct, Maine the highest at 13.00%

New York is next at 12%

Vermont is 6th at 11.40%

[maineiac]

If we paid the state every tax it demanded, we wouldn't be able to pay our bills.

[CNHT]

If we paid the state every tax it demanded, we wouldn't be able to pay our bills.

I just wish for every dumb letter in the Concord Monitor, people would write a counter-letter.

There are two in there that just rub me the wrong way -- people who think the government is supposed to redistribute the wealth and do everything for them.
One is from a man who is demanding that Lynch make 'the quality of life' better in NH (say what? It's the best already, so he is to be laughed at) and another (a woman)  is demanding everything from universal health care to lord knows what all else.

Someone MUST refute these people! I write so many letters I am basically ignored.