This is in response to an Associated Press article March 21. It included advice to business owners from Sen. Joseph Perry, D-Bangor, co-chair of the Taxation Committee.

If Perry doesn’t know where to make budget cuts, he should resign. So should all the other legislators who are busy pandering to special interest groups. Most of their proposals for “tax reform” increase taxes on Peter to give Paul a tax break. This is government at its worst.

Legislators should stop looking for the easy way out. Show some character and make the hard decisions to cut spending. Start by passing Gov. John Baldacci’s proposal to reduce the number of school districts.

Then cut the number of legislators in half. Limit the number of bills to five that any legislator can submit per session. Assign priorities for spending, with the highest priority going to what benefits the most taxpayers, such as roads and bridges; lowest to what benefits the few, such as pork barrel projects.

Require all jails and prisons to be self supporting – make prisoners pay for their stay.

All new spending must be funded by cuts to other programs.

Allow voluntary contributions to be directed to specific programs.

Enact sunset provisions on all existing programs so they automatically expire, or are renewed if still needed. These are just a few proposals I came up with in 10 minutes.

I am sure there are thousands more if legislators thought about it and really wanted to cut spending.

Scott Moore, Poland