Bangor Daily News, July 18
The challenge of reforming Maine’s creaky tax system is made apparent by the trouble the Baldacci administration and lawmakers are having as they try to find an alternative to the ballot initiative from the Maine Municipal Association. The governor, like the MMA, has the basics right. But he errs if he believes he can impose spending caps that will work long term.

Maine relies too heavily on a 19th century measure of wealth – property – and limits other forms of taxation, mostly sales taxes, based on habit and political influence. This produces all sorts of negative effects, including creating the need for special tax breaks for the poor to keep them from being taxed out of their homes. These programs, naturally, are inadequate. And it creates costly suburban sprawl beyond the borders of high tax service centers and gives tax breaks to visitors while leaving the cost of operating Vacationland to residents who can’t afford time off.

The MMA proposal exists because municipalities grew tired of waiting for the state to fulfill its commitment to funding K-12 education. The state should fund 55 percent of the costs; it struggles to reach 44 percent, and does even less well when public revenues are tight. The governor, apparently having found it too difficult to actually reform the state tax structure, has proposed a more modest plan addressing just two, admittedly large, issues. He would impose caps on municipal spending (or he would try to) and he would let growth in state tax revenues swell the percentage of the state education share within the restrained local

spending. . . .

The weakness of the MMA plan has been pointed out repeatedly: It doesn’t identify how the state will find the additional $264 million the plan requires be sent to municipalities. It is, of course, a serious failing. But not just any alternative to it is preferable. The governor and lawmakers have more work to do before settling on a competing ballot measure.
Doctors should be honest
The Buffalo (N.Y.) News, July 21
Warning: Going to your doctor could be hazardous to your health. Under pressure from restrictive health insurance plans, nearly a third of doctors surveyed say they have withheld information about useful treatments because they believed the treatments were not covered by the insurance plans. . . .

As the study pointed out, though, this practice is rife with risks. For one, the doctor might be wrong about the details of the health plan. Even if he is right, the patient cannot appeal a denial of benefits to the insurance company. . . .

Doctors who worry that some patients may ask them to lie to the insurance companies may have a point, but they also may be missing a larger one. It’s easy to see, under certain circumstances, where a jury might conclude that failure to advise a patient about treatments constitutes malpractice especially if the doctor was wrong about the availability of coverage. . . .
Is Iraq a guerrilla war?
Orange County (Calif.) Register, July 20
The Issue: Are American troops in Iraq part of a peacekeeping operation or embroiled in a guerrilla war?

The Spin: President Bush declared the war over and won back in May. Civilian leaders like Defense Secretary Rumsfeld have talked of the continuing low-level attacks on Americans as the work of a few “remnants” or “bitter-enders” engaging in essentially uncoordinated, opportunistic attacks on random targets.

The Unspin: Count on the military to see reality. The new commander of U.S. forces in Iraq called the situation “a classical guerrilla-style campaign.” . . .

Unspin Two: Foreign occupying forces almost always encounter hostility from the natives. The organized nature of resistance in Iraq underscores the importance of leaving Iraq as soon as possible. . . .

Our interest is a government that doesn’t harbor terrorists who can hurt the United States, not utopia.
Blair in credibility crisis
Hufvudstadsbladet, Helsinki, Finland, July 22
British Prime Minister Tony Blair has assured that he is not thinking of resigning despite Tory opposition leader Iain Duncan Smith’s demands. But the David Kelly affair has, in every way, been very painful for Blair and his government. Blair has no reason to resign just because Kelly committed suicide, the opposition has demanded it or that a certain part of his speech was false. But even before the war, he was accused of being Bush’s lapdog. Why was he in contrast to Chirac and Schroeder so eager to go to war?

Blair finds himself in the middle of a personal credibility crisis. It is lucky for him that both his own government colleagues and opposition leader Duncan Smith appear not to be up to the job of succeeding him.