I hope my former middle school math students remember the lessons I taught them about the manipulation of the y-axis scale to produce deceptive graphs as they read Bruce Poliquin’s column in the Sun Journal on Sunday, June 2.

In the graph headed “16th highest state spending per person,” the difference between $6,216 and $5,251 is $965. Maine’s spending is 15 percent higher than the U.S. average. The bar graph for this data makes it appear as if Maine’s spending is more than twice the U.S. average, or at least 200 percent the U.S. average.

The other graph he chose to use is headed the “9th highest tax burden per person.” The actual difference between Maine and the U.S. average is 0.4 percent — four-tenths of 1 percent. The bar graph makes 10.3 percent appear to be more than twice 9.9 percent which, of course, it is not.

Additionally, these graphs presented data in isolation. Without the range of values, the graphs certainly do not tell the whole story. Thirty percent of the states spend more per person and 68 percent spend less. How much more? How much less? Likewise, the percent of the tax burden is incomplete without the maximum and minimum “tax burdens” in the U.S.

I am disturbed that Poliquin, who has 35 years of experience in business and was the Maine State treasurer, would choose to use those deceptive graphs to support his ideas about taxes.

Susan Lea, Poland