Letters
Services will be lost
The automobile excise tax proposal will decrease that tax by about 40 percent. But there are some facts opponents neglect to tell. Only 32 percent of the vehicles registered in Maine will receive a break on the tax. Vehicles five years and older will not have any reduction in the tax. Hybrids rated to get at least 40 miles per gallon will not be taxed for three years from the model year. Yet these vehicles will cause wear and tear to the roads. These same hybrids would be exempt from sales tax, which will further lower revenues.
Excise tax goes directly to the towns in which they are paid. The towns would lose about 40 percent or more of this tax. This loss will most likely mean an increase in property taxes.
In Poland, we will lose $400,000, about 8 percent of the budget. This would be equivalent to closing the Fire and Rescue Department, or not paving any roads, or eliminating general assistance plus the library plus the rec department plus the code enforcement office plus the solid waste department.
If anyone thinks the amount lost can be cut from the budget, think about specifics, not generalities such as being more efficient. Valuable services might be lost.
TABOR will not reduce property taxes or prevent a large tax increase to an individual because of a property re-evaluation. Passage of TABOR could also cause a loss of valuable services.
I encourage a "no" vote on Questions 2 and 4.
Stan Tetenman, Poland
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There are more than a few
There are more than a few myths that need to be dispelled such as that ALL excise tax money goes to the town and that all that goes to the town goes to roads. Only a portion of the excise tax collected stays with the town. The rest goes...to the state, hummm. Excise tax money does not have to go to roads. Many towns put PART or ALL their excise tax proceeds ito the general fund. The biggest road myth fraud being tried here is that Excise Tax is the ONLY tax/revenue source for roads. Anyone bought gas lately? More than half of the price of a gallon of gas is made up of state and federal and some places even county gas taxes and they are increased regularly. The most notable increase came as the result of Americans conservation of wallet efforts when fuel prices skyrocketted in 2008. When people stopped driving and buying gas, the governments take of your money shrank. To make up for the shortfall, they increased the per gallon tax, wallah! fully bankrolled government at its spendiest again. You should also realize that the towns get some of that gas tax money for roads in the form of revenue sharing, gas tax revenue sharing. Then there are tolls which are in effect taxes. For the life of me I can not figure out what is being done with the turnpike toll money it is certainly not being used to maintain the tirnpike which is impassable in places and destructive to man and machine throughout.
I believe Excise tax should be elliminated completely. We would save a fortune in staffing, processing and handling, mailing and transferring these small amounts. It is costing us more to administer this thing at all these levels than is collected. The gas tax is fair as what you added to the pot beyond town meeting, you control by how much you drive. If you stay home or walk you are not wearing the roads and you are not polluting the air so why should you pay. If you can not keep your foot off the accellerator you are going to spend a lot more time and a lot more bucks at the
You know what Stan? Who
You know what Stan? Who cares. We are taxed to the hilt and are tired of it. All our gov't does is add more taxes to pay for thier failure as an administration. They haven't listened but when Tabor and this excise tax reduction does perhaps they will wake up (but I'm still not counting on it).
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