AUGUSTA — At the same time Gov. Paul LePage was promising Lisbon residents he would take his campaign to end Maine’s income tax to the people in a statewide ballot vote, lawmakers at the State House voted against his tax and budget proposals.

Tuesday evening, the Legislature’s budget-writing Appropriations Committee nixed an income tax cut proposed by LePage that would have cut Maine’s corporate tax rate by $118 million.

The 13-member panel’s two state Senate Republicans joined with seven House and Senate Democrats in a pattern of bipartisan votes that were mostly opposed by the four House Republicans on the panel.

“We rejected huge tax breaks for corporations and the wealthy,” House Speaker Mark Eves, D-North Berwick, said in a prepared statement released at about 11:15 p.m. “The failed trickle-down economics have left Maine’s economy lagging behind the nation, and has backfired in states across the country.”

Eves and his House majority Democrats also praised the committee for rejecting proposed income tax cuts that LePage wanted, saying they were targeted mostly towards Maine’s wealthiest earners.

The panel also rejected LePage’s proposal to end a program that is aimed at providing property tax relief to homeowners — a program that shares some of the state’s sales and income tax revenue with municipalities. The committee left in place $62.5 million in revenue sharing for cities and towns for each of the next two state fiscal years starting on July 1.

The committee also rejected a proposal to eliminate the state’s estate tax by 2017, instead voting to match federal law on the taxes paid on inheritances. Called the “death tax” by Republicans, lawmakers agreed to exempt from state taxes the first $5.5 million of an inheritance; Maine’s current law exempts the first $2 million.

Republican leaders in the state Senate told reporters earlier in the week the shift is an important achievement for them. They said the tax can devastate a family farm that’s being passed from one generation to the next.

“This is for people who are land rich and cash poor,” said Senate Majority Leader Garrett Mason, R-Lisbon, “and there are a lot of people like that in Maine.”

The committee also voted 12-1 to send the fees that State House lobbyists pay to a fund that will be used by the state’s Commission on Governmental Ethics and Election Practices.

The committee also approved, 9-4, a provision that would allow cities and towns hosting county jails and state prisons to bill other towns for General Assistance welfare payments that the hosting cities may make to inmates upon their release. Under the provision, the hosting town would be allowed to bill the town or city that was the inmate’s residence prior to incarceration, if the inmate applies for assistance from the hosting city within 45 days of being released from jail.

On a 12-1 vote, the committee also approved 27 new positions for the state’s Office of Information Technology.

The committee was expected to continue its work on the state’s $6.57 billion spending package when it reconvenes Wednesday afternoon.

This story will be updated.

sthistle@sunjournal.com

 

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