Reform's appeal is stability

Instead of tired partisan canards or paradoxical rhetoric about Maine's new tax-reform legislation, voters should remember these two things:

1. This reform stabilizes Maine's tax system, which is too vulnerable to economic volatility.

2. See No. 1.

Maine is wallowing in the trough of another boom-and-bust economic cycle, which makes finding wiser and less oppressive ways of taxation not only needed, but inarguable. How many times must the state take this particular punch before it reacts? 

Balancing state revenues on twin pillars of a burdensome income tax and a skinny sales tax base has been, after all, the recipe for a polar economy. When times are good, everything works well and everyone's happy. In lean times, the downturn's effect becomes aggravated and causes dire consequences. (Like right now, with another $400 million shortfall looming before lawmakers.)

So, the cumulative effect of tax reform — beyond its individual details — was to diversify the state's revenue stream to reduce its dependence on sources whose fluctuations can be drastic. This is the endorsement of a more predictable, daresay conservative, course for running government.  

It's arguable, too, that the best method of preventing tax increases is avoiding conditions where they become necessary. Taking Maine off the fiscal roller coaster could do that, by lessening the chances for precipitous declines in revenue. (Like what's happening right now.) 

This context is crucial, yet just about ignored in discussions about tax reform, the repeal of which is heading for the June ballot. So much emphasis is on winners and losers that the collective benefit — a safer, less volatile system of taxation — is not getting enough attention.

Why? Because tax reform itself is a matter of winners and losers, or specifically, majorities and minorities. This issue is a fight between Democrats and Republicans, the political version of those two battling bull moose who were stuffed and mounted with their antlers interlocked. They are mortal enemies in an evocative display of battle. But let's not forget: both  moose both died in the process.

If tax reform fails, Maine would also suffer.

Reform arguments are now targeting constituencies: seniors, small businesses, low incomes, high incomes, certain corporations, etc. This is pro forma campaigning: breaking an issue down into its elements, so every potential voter is told how it might affect them.

What is overlooked, however, is recognition of reform's most important benefit: a more stable tax system. In considering the fate of tax reform, voters cannot lose sight of this big picture.

editorialboard@sunjournal.com