It is hard to believe Gov. Paul LePage has proposed to tax public school teachers an additional 2 percent above and beyond tax rates paid by private sector employees. 

The LePage budget for the next biennium proposes a 2 percent payroll tax increase on teachers and public  employees ostensibly to pay for the state pension system’s unfunded actuarial liability, which has accrued by the Legislature’s failure to fully pay the state’s share for decades.

A constitutional amendment passed in 1995 required these long overdue debts to be paid by 2028.  By 2007 this debt was mostly paid off, but the stock market tanked and billions of dollars were lost from the state’s pension system. 

Solution? Let’s raise teachers’ taxes by 2 percent, and ask them to work another week while we’re at it. Great business logic.

To top it off, the governor is not telling the public that the net effect of this payroll tax increase on teachers may very well be offset by a reduction of the state’s contribution and thus have minimal effect on reducing the UAL.

The governor may say how much he appreciates the efforts of Maine’s teachers, but his actions appear to say otherwise.

Russell Jabaut, Durham