Top rate went from 8.5 to 7.95%. Thousands of working folks, earning in the teens and twenties of thousands, will no longer pay State income tax. Yes, go ahead, and rescind it. What a great idea!
1. Maine is now the oldest state in the nation. Older, on average, than Florida. Health care needs will continue to escalate. It is inevitable.
2. Maine is one of the poorest states (income-wise) in the nation. I looked at per capita income in Lewiston in the 2000 and 2010 census data. A little under $18,000 in 2000, a little over $18,000 in 2010. Factor in the loss of purchasing power due to inflation over that decade (-31%), we are looking at per capita, adjusted for inflation, per capita income at about $12,500. Average household size in Lewiston is 2.1, so you can see we are very poor as a group.
3. Health care costs continue to rise as technology improves. Residents get older, have less resources to pay for escalating health care services. A true disaster in the making.
4. Federal government is borrowing and printing money. State government is broke and cannot print money like Washington can. High taxes have driven the working young people out of Maine to a great extent (see average age). Option used for many years by Augusta has been to increase taxes and/or borrow. Increasing government revenues has the inevitable effect of depressing private sector investment in Maine and almost assuredly will cost private sector jobs, which, in turn, will result in our young, productive, tax-paying people out of Maine. Downward spiral has been in operation for about 40 years now.
5. 82% of state expenditures are health care and education related.
6. There were no solutions offered by Covey and Myles. Where is the money going to come from to maintain MaineCare? In 2000, there were 200,000 MaineCare recipients. In 2012, there are 361,000 MaineCare recipients. How long can we continue the rate of MaineCare growth? The state of Maine is now delinquent, back to 2009 according to the Covey/Myles piece. The state cannot even pay for care rendered 3 years ago, much less the care being rendered today. What are the solutions?
7. Cut state general purpose aid to education and let the cities and towns fund education at the local level? New Hampshire funds education via the property tax (93%). Test scores are better than Maine and kids are getting educated, most certainly. This would free up over a billion dollars for MaineCare. Education money from the state of Maine is a sacred cow but we have to find the money somewhere, and lots of it.
8. Require local communities to fund their own school building projects? High schools now cost over $60,000,000. Are property owners willing to pay the debt service on $60 million construction projects? To fund MaineCare at 361,000 people, and growing, we might have to. Will people hang around Maine to pay that debt service? Don't be so sure.
9. How about attacking costs at our local hospitals. How about merging the two hospitals? Can we afford two high dollar cost management teams now that the well is dry? It might have worked in the past, can we afford it now?
10. We now live in an America where 49% of households pay no federal income tax. I'd guess that the rate is even higher in Lewiston, given the income numbers above. How long can we ask half to work and pay and allow half to live off the others? ObamaCare is just around the corner, and the load on the payers is going to get that much higher to pay of 32,000,000 people coming in for "free" care. Yipes!
When Peggy first went to Augusta, there were less than 200,000 Mainers on MaineCare. There are now 361,000 (and counting) Mainers who report income low enough to be "on the state." Peggy makes it a habit to show up at meeting late. Perhaps she's busy. More likely to draw attention to herself. Good politics, indeed.
So, where is the $220 million (and counting)going to come from? Soak the rich Mainers for more taxes? Soak the middle class for more taxes? 82% of the Maine budget goes to MaineCare and Education. Cut out the state police? How about eliminating the warden service?
Peggy, Craven, Carey, Wagner and their friends should be ashamed to show their faces around town. What an abject failure to support the basic prosperity of their fellow Mainers. Wait! Maybe their game is to keep us all groveling for state aid. Yeah, that's the ticket.
BobStone's Comments
Let me help you understand, Dan
1. The MTA board is an unpaid position. In other words, my work is free to the MTA.
2. The "cushy" benefits consist of gas money to meetings. It is precisely $55 a meeting, held about once a month.
3. If he had to rely on the $55 a month, I believe I would be anything other than secure.
Hope that adjusts your view of service as an MTA board member. And what does this have to do with the subject matter of this thread?
Do You Understand the Massive Tax Cut?
Top rate went from 8.5 to 7.95%. Thousands of working folks, earning in the teens and twenties of thousands, will no longer pay State income tax. Yes, go ahead, and rescind it. What a great idea!
How about the Donations?
To leftist causes? Rooks totally ignores all of that "outreach."
Sorry, Doug, your bias is showing. Using taxpayer money to fund political agendas in just plain unethical.
Ethics in government is far from theater.
Thoughts
1. Maine is now the oldest state in the nation. Older, on average, than Florida. Health care needs will continue to escalate. It is inevitable.
2. Maine is one of the poorest states (income-wise) in the nation. I looked at per capita income in Lewiston in the 2000 and 2010 census data. A little under $18,000 in 2000, a little over $18,000 in 2010. Factor in the loss of purchasing power due to inflation over that decade (-31%), we are looking at per capita, adjusted for inflation, per capita income at about $12,500. Average household size in Lewiston is 2.1, so you can see we are very poor as a group.
3. Health care costs continue to rise as technology improves. Residents get older, have less resources to pay for escalating health care services. A true disaster in the making.
4. Federal government is borrowing and printing money. State government is broke and cannot print money like Washington can. High taxes have driven the working young people out of Maine to a great extent (see average age). Option used for many years by Augusta has been to increase taxes and/or borrow. Increasing government revenues has the inevitable effect of depressing private sector investment in Maine and almost assuredly will cost private sector jobs, which, in turn, will result in our young, productive, tax-paying people out of Maine. Downward spiral has been in operation for about 40 years now.
5. 82% of state expenditures are health care and education related.
6. There were no solutions offered by Covey and Myles. Where is the money going to come from to maintain MaineCare? In 2000, there were 200,000 MaineCare recipients. In 2012, there are 361,000 MaineCare recipients. How long can we continue the rate of MaineCare growth? The state of Maine is now delinquent, back to 2009 according to the Covey/Myles piece. The state cannot even pay for care rendered 3 years ago, much less the care being rendered today. What are the solutions?
7. Cut state general purpose aid to education and let the cities and towns fund education at the local level? New Hampshire funds education via the property tax (93%). Test scores are better than Maine and kids are getting educated, most certainly. This would free up over a billion dollars for MaineCare. Education money from the state of Maine is a sacred cow but we have to find the money somewhere, and lots of it.
8. Require local communities to fund their own school building projects? High schools now cost over $60,000,000. Are property owners willing to pay the debt service on $60 million construction projects? To fund MaineCare at 361,000 people, and growing, we might have to. Will people hang around Maine to pay that debt service? Don't be so sure.
9. How about attacking costs at our local hospitals. How about merging the two hospitals? Can we afford two high dollar cost management teams now that the well is dry? It might have worked in the past, can we afford it now?
10. We now live in an America where 49% of households pay no federal income tax. I'd guess that the rate is even higher in Lewiston, given the income numbers above. How long can we ask half to work and pay and allow half to live off the others? ObamaCare is just around the corner, and the load on the payers is going to get that much higher to pay of 32,000,000 people coming in for "free" care. Yipes!
So, What's It Gonna Be, Peggy?
When Peggy first went to Augusta, there were less than 200,000 Mainers on MaineCare. There are now 361,000 (and counting) Mainers who report income low enough to be "on the state." Peggy makes it a habit to show up at meeting late. Perhaps she's busy. More likely to draw attention to herself. Good politics, indeed.
So, where is the $220 million (and counting)going to come from? Soak the rich Mainers for more taxes? Soak the middle class for more taxes? 82% of the Maine budget goes to MaineCare and Education. Cut out the state police? How about eliminating the warden service?
Peggy, Craven, Carey, Wagner and their friends should be ashamed to show their faces around town. What an abject failure to support the basic prosperity of their fellow Mainers. Wait! Maybe their game is to keep us all groveling for state aid. Yeah, that's the ticket.
Sad case, indeed.