We were startled by a Sun Journal column by Rep. Seth Berry, published Aug. 26. The headline was as subtle as a sledgehammer — “Largest tax shift in Maine history hurts working families.” The column contains wild distortions and blatant fabrications.
Two facts: The tax cuts that Rep. Berry criticized in his column were supported overwhelmingly by legislative Democrats, including himself. They were part of the state budget that passed the House 123-19. It is disingenuous for a legislator to blast away at something he voted for and, as a member of the Taxation Committee, he understands the tax reform bill perfectly well. His attack was designed to deceive readers.
Second, working families benefit from the new tax system. According to Maine Revenue Services — a neutral referee — some 460,000 Maine families will see an average reduction of $337 in their 2013 income tax. Another 70,000 low-income filers will be exempt from state income taxes, thanks to the new zero percent bracket.
MRS officials describe the new system as more progressive than the old one because high-income Mainers will shoulder more of the overall income tax burden. The Maine Today Media newspapers, in an advertising “truth test,” reached the same conclusion, stating, “Maine’s income tax is more progressive because of the changes.”
With the tax changes validated as favoring the poor and middle class, Berry shifted to this claim: “Due to many tax measures passed by the majority, the few making $350,000 will receive an income tax cut of $3,000. In future years, this windfall will increase to more than $24,000 per year.”
Here, he combined two new laws — the budget and LD 849. The income tax cuts take effect next year; in contrast, LD 849 is unlikely to affect anyone for a decade or more.
LD 849 is a “trigger” bill that goes operational depending on a revenue surplus, which would be used to gradually lower the state’s income tax rates. To give “the rich” the $24,000 cut Rep. Berry cites, MRS estimates state government would have to experience a surplus of $3 billion. Considering the entire state budget is $3 billion, this claim is laughable.
Rep. Berry misleads further with claims that Republican cuts to towns and property tax programs will cost “homeowners and renters more than $400 apiece.” However, municipal revenue sharing actually increased this session. The big cuts occurred in fiscal years 2008, 2009 and 2010, falling steadily from $133 million in 2008 to $93 million in 2011 — the last budget year of the Baldacci administration.
Ideological differences between parties are a normal part of politics. However, misleading the public to score cheap election-year points damages our democratic system and denies the public the truth.
State Rep. Susan Morissette, R-Winslow, and state Sen. Tom Martin, R-Kennebec.
Report a correction
Say it ain't so....
Representative Morissette and Senator Martin thank you for setting the record straight. When are we going to have some fact checking before publication? Didn't newspapers do this routinely in the past?
- Permalink
- Is this comment inappropriate?
Kudos AwardedAgree (2) Disagree (1)
Would you like to respond? Login or create a new account. You'll need to verify your account before you can respond.Say it ain
State Rep. Susan Morissette, R-Winslow, and state Sen. Tom Martin, R-Kennebec.
- Permalink
- Is this comment inappropriate?
Would you like to respond? Login or create a new account. You'll need to verify your account before you can respond.Taking from the middle, giving to the top
I enjoyed this letter as a daring feat of political fiction and spin, but sadly there are real economic consequences behind the massive tax shift being defended here. This should not be about partisan sniping, but about facts.
First: Here are the simple facts about the GOP's major shift from income to property taxes, balancing the state budget on the backs of working families and the middle class: http://bhamberry.blogspot.com
I encourage readers of this article to take a close look at these facts, borne out by the Governor' own staff at Maine Revenue Services, before commenting.
Second: I voted for a budget that was a compromise -- the best Democrats felt we could do in an entirely Republican State House. The GOP got the tax shift they wanted, while the Democrats got an intact safety net and ladder of opportunity. But less than a year later, that deal was betrayed and the GOP rammed through cuts to Head Start, Drugs for the Elderly, and health care for tens of thousands of lower income working Mainers. The tradition of bipartisanship was abandoned.
Having broken faith with the bargain, does the GOP really expect us to defend their shortsighted policy priorities?
Third: LD 849 is perhaps the most ambitious tax and spending bill passed by any Legislature since at least 2005. Much like TABOR, its goal is simple: to ratchet down income tax revenue until it is roughly half of what it is today. It was passed almost entirely along party lines. It promises an average of $21,638 per year to those making OVER $350,000, and an average of less than $1 to a single parent of two, working full time at minimum wage.
By cutting nearly a quarter of the state budget over time, it also promises still more shift to middle-class property taxes to fund our schools, roads, and public safety.
Small wonder the GOP thinks it's somehow unfair that I should bring up LD 849 as part of their overall tax shift. But if they thought LD 849 wasn't going to work - or was something they preferred I not mention - perhaps they should not have passed it to begin with.
- Permalink
- Is this comment inappropriate?
Kudos AwardedAgree (2) Disagree (3)
Would you like to respond? Login or create a new account. You'll need to verify your account before you can respond.The Maine GOP Says Berry is Wrong, and Voted for Plan He Rejects
Maine Republican Party
For Immediate Release, August 31, 2012
Contact: David Sorensen, Communications Director
Phone: (207) 622-6247
Rep. Berry Launches Pathetic Attack on Tax Plan He Voted For
Short memory and omitted facts mark personal war in the editorial pages
"Rep. Seth Berry is being dishonest and hypocritical," said Maine Republican Party spokesman David Sorensen. "He has lied by omission and conveniently ignored his own policies of just a few years ago."
In a series of guest editorials to newspapers all over Maine this summer, Rep. Berry has been relentlessly attacking the biennial budget that he voted for. "It is understandable that there may be some things in the budget he doesn't like - no legislator is completely happy with every budget they vote for," continued Sorensen. "But the level of vitriol Berry has spewed about the tax cuts in the budget makes me wonder why he voted for them."
Berry has asserted repeatedly in his columns that the recent tax cuts passed under Republican leadership benefit the rich while everyone else loses, in one calling the tax reform "the largest tax shift in Maine history."
Berry knows that this is not true. He serves on the taxation committee. He knows that the share of income taxes paid by the top 10 percent will actually increase from 55 to 57 percent of total income taxes collected. He knows that the 80 percent of income tax payers in the low- and middle-income brackets pay only 24 percent of income taxes, but will receive 33 percent of the tax cuts, almost half again more than their "fair share."
But the truth doesn't matter to Berry. What matters is winning the election and gaining back the majority. He was the House Majority Whip two years ago, and now he is just a rank and file member of the minority party.
---> He has also been taking this fight to his fellow legislators, with whom he should be working across the aisle. He recently called the author of a column that rebuts one of his own to express surprise and anger that his Republican colleague would dare to respond. These intimidation tactics are unacceptable.
It also doesn't matter to Berry that the 2009 Democratic tax "reform" that he championed fits the mold of his own criticism. Berry specifically writes in one of his columns that those making over $350,000 per year will receive a $3,000 tax cut as a result of the GOP plan.
----> LD 1495, the bill that Berry fanatically defended and that was repealed by a people's veto in 2010, reduced income taxes by twice as much - $6,238 - for the very same group. He "paid for" this by jacking up sales taxes on everything from car repairs to dog grooming to nursing home meals. Republicans paid for theirs by cutting spending. Republicans passed real tax relief.
Berry says he wants to "put partisanship aside" in 2013. That's funny. Republicans built a bipartisan consensus for their plan, while Berry crafted his failed 2009 tax plan without Republican input and rammed it through without bipartisan support.
"The people of Maine rejected Rep. Berry's tax plan decisively at the polls in 2010," continued Sorensen. "It is pathetic for him to run around the state attacking the Republican plan that he voted for, and that Maine people kept in place."
###
Paid for and authorized by the Maine Republican Party. Not authorized by any Candidate or Candidate's Committee.
Maine Republican Party | Ben Lombard, Treasurer | 9 Higgins St. | Augusta | ME | 04330
- Permalink
- Is this comment inappropriate?
Would you like to respond? Login or create a new account. You'll need to verify your account before you can respond.