There is good news out of Washington for a change: legislation has been introduced in Congress that would end some of the worst forms of corporate tax dodging.

The “Stop Tax Haven Abuse” Act would raise $220 billion over the next decade to eliminate incentives to ship jobs overseas, reverse destructive budget cuts like the “sequester” and level the playing field for small businesses trying to compete with the big guys.

It is a bill Sens. Susan Collins and Angus King should be proud to support because it is good for our country, good for Maine and good for our hometowns here in Androscoggin County.

For me, it is personal.

Lewiston-Auburn’s original prosperity was built on manufacturing. Auburn at one time had nine “shoe shops.” My mother worked in a few of them. Area textile mills employed thousands.

Those days are gone. Even though the Twin Cities are finding new ways to prosper, the scars from the deindustrialization of the Androscoggin Valley are still clear, from diminished housing stock to a reduced tax base.

Overseas corporate tax dodging costs the U.S. $90 billion a year. That is money that could be used to better educate children, ensure a secure retirement for our parents and ourselves, improve and expand health care, and support manufacturing and small business.

Common-sense legislation like this bill can help return our communities and country to the kind of broad-based, middle-class prosperity some of us can still remember.

Laurent Gilbert Sr., Lewiston

Editor’s note: Laurent Gilbert Sr. is a candidate for mayor of Lewiston.

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