John Coleman lives in Portland.

I was glad to see Gov. Mills support the proposed millionaire tax. As a lifelong Mainer and serial entrepreneur who has gone from just getting by to making enough that this bill would cost me real money some years, I say: good.

I’m proud to say I was raised in Augusta. I went to Lincoln Elementary, Buker Middle and Cony High schools. In fourth grade, I was diagnosed with dyslexia, and gratefully was afforded special help at all three of those schools — because the taxpayers of Maine showed up for me. That support allowed me to do something that felt like a long shot: go to college.

I earned a degree in mechanical engineering from UMaine, spent seven years working at a global engineering company, and at 30, took a wild leap and founded an ad agency in Portland called VIA. Since 1993, VIA has created thousands of good jobs, earned national recognition and, yes, ultimately made me and my high-school sweetheart (now my wife) wealthy.

Meanwhile, I’ve watched too many of my neighbors struggle with skyrocketing rents, exploding fuel costs, shuttered health centers, unaffordable long-term care and grocery bills made worse by reckless tariffs.

A little more financial help for most folks can make a huge difference in their lives. For example, I recently learned that most of Maine’s growing and devastating evictions could be prevented with as little as $1,500. My wife and I will happily pay a little more for better schools, roads, hospitals, daycare, job training and food assistance.

I was raised to believe that’s what all Mainers do: work hard, help out, be kind, have fun, give back. Pretty simple. We show up for whatever makes life better in this state, be it helping a neighbor fix a dock washed out by a storm or paying a bit more if you have extra.

I believe wealthy people benefit disproportionately from higher taxes that are invested in public education. I am a capitalist through and through — I have worked with hundreds of companies selling everything from Klondike bars to Maidenform bras. I’ve seen firsthand that these companies, along with every Maine company, thrive when their employees are well-educated, secure and supported. These companies also need educated, well-off consumers who have the means to buy the products they’re selling. When everyone has enough, the whole system works better.

Maine is a state of generous, self-reliant people who understand that happiness isn’t found in extreme wealth. So I genuinely don’t understand why anyone with more than enough would begrudge paying a little more in taxes to make life easier for our nurses, plumbers, teachers, farmers, fishermen, bartenders and especially our future — all our children. As one friend put it, “So that’s $20,000 in taxes on my second million? That’s not so bad.”

As for the threat that wealthy people will flee to Florida if asked to pay a little more — I can’t imagine a real Mainer trading Acadia for a strip mall in Boca Raton — ugh. But if a rich person’s loyalty to this state evaporates the moment they’re asked to chip in a tiny bit more, maybe Maine wasn’t really home to them anyway. 

As for the idea that poor people are just lazy — please. For every person gaming the system, I’ll show you a thousand Mainers working themselves ragged and still falling behind. That’s not a character flaw. That’s a policy failure.

We have to get beyond this trope that “taxes are always bad.” Taxes aren’t the enemy. They’re the entry fee for a state worth living in. Any businessperson who can’t see the return on that investment isn’t paying close enough attention.

For Maine to truly be “the way life should be,” we all need to have enough. Not just the people lucky enough to write op-eds like this one.