Despite our ongoing budget crisis, our state’s leaders still refuse to address the real problem. The perceived solution from Augusta is to continuously increase revenue, and thus expand, not control, the spending problem.

Any fee imposed by government, which is not voluntary, is a tax. This includes deceptive names such as fees, contributions, surcharges and others. Another definition from American Heritage dictionary includes “A burdensome or excessive demand; a strain.” Both apply in Maine’s situation.

The fact that our Legislature has committed to spending nearly $1 billion more in the next biennium than we can afford should reveal to our leaders that government has vastly outgrown the taxpayers’ ability to support it.

As a young child, I understood that if I didn’t have enough money to purchase a particular item, I could not afford it. This really isn’t difficult to understand, so why does our government not comprehend such a fundamental reality?

Winston Churchill once said, “We contend that for a nation to try to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle.”

This observation can equally apply to a state, and thus reveal our state’s leaders as they continue to pull at the handle, seemingly oblivious to the hardship they continue to inflict.

We must limit state and local spending to only that which we need and can afford. The only means is forced compliance through a spending and tax control amendment.
Gary C. Foster, Gray

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