I sincerely hope LeBuffoon gets everything he wants, and more...

I sincerely hope LeBuffoon gets everything he wants, and more...and in ten years, when the average Mainer says "What happened to my wallet?", I can refer them to the 2014 gubernatorial election and the wallets of the wealthy 2%.

LePage budget plan reforms Maine tax policy

LeBuffoon's 2016-17 spending plan for state government includes sweeping reforms to Maine's tax policy, dramatically changing the sources of state revenue from the income tax to a broader and higher sales tax.

What LeBuffoon's budget will do:

* Eliminate state revenue-sharing with cities and towns by 2017 (When LeBuffoon was Waterville mayor, he had regular tantrums   when Baldacci cut revenue-sharing   )


* Municipalties would be allowed to tax the property of nonprofit organizations, like Rumford Hospital, with property valued at over $500,000 at 50 percent of the current property tax rate for the municipality. (I thought LeBuffoon just paid back the hospitals what we owed them? Now he wants to tax it all back? ?  Maine's hospitals are seeing increasing debt already due to LeBuffoon's refusal to expand Medicaid.  This will only add to the problem ultimately raising health costs for the average Maine citizen.  If you're a member of the 2% crowd, it's not an issue.)


* LeBuffoon's plan, which chops the state's top income tax rate from 7.9 percent to 5.75 percent, reduces the total amount Mainers will pay in taxes by about $300 million a year by 2019. (If you make a lot of money, you'll benefit greatly.  If you make little money, not so much. Once again, his plan is to make things better for the wealthy.)


*  LeBuffoon's budget would eliminate entirely the state income tax for those receiving military pensions. (I'm in favor of this, but like the EBT card issue, it's just window dressing and an effort to ease his personal guilt for running to Canada during the Vietnam War.  This will have an impact on very few people.)


*  LeBuffoon's budget would make up the lost income-tax revenue in his proposal by increasing the state's sales tax from 5.5 percent to 6.5 percent. (I guess LeBuffoon has gone with the Volusia County, FL model, and thrown the New Hampshire model under the bus. With Obama's low gas prices, more people will be driving to New Hampshire to do their shopping. Yea...a road trip every month!)


* LeBuffoon's sales tax increase would be applied to a broader range of goods and services, many now exempt from the sales tax, including attorneys' fees and greens fees at golf courses.



* LeBuffoon's budget would set the state's lodging and auto rental sales tax at 8 percent. A service provider sales tax of 6 percent would also be put into place. (Don't forget, tourism is one of Maine's biggest industries. This will help   .)


* LeBuffoon's proposal also would eliminate the state's estate tax paid by those who inherit properties or businesses and includes provisions that would allow a sales-tax rebate based on income. (Since the average Mainer has never paid an estate tax, that'll help!...  ...fools)


* LeBuffoon's proposal would also reduce the state's corporate income tax rate from 8.93 percent to 6.75 percent.


* LeBuffoon's proposal also includes $46 million in additional funding to eliminate waiting lists for the Maine Department of Health and Human Services for some of the state's most disabled residents — including those with mental and physical impairments that require 24-hour care and support services.


SJ Link

If you're wealthy, it's not an issue.  If you're destitute, it's not an issue.  If you're an average Mainer, once again, LeBuffoon gives you the shaft. And you Tea Party types follow him blindly into the abyss.    

It's going to be fun to listen to you Tea Party types squeal when the services you are so accustomed to are gone.    



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“If we (Maine hospitals) are obligated to pay a new tax, we have little choice but to ask our customers to shoulder a portion of the burden, making it a tax on people when they get sick," Jeffrey Austin said.


SJ Link

If Good Shepherd had to pay $24,400 in property taxes, “that would be 100,000 meals that we would no longer be able to distribute," Miale said.

SJ Link

The majority of municipalities in Maine don't have nonprofits with property valued at $500,000 or more to tax, said Geoff Herman of the MMA. Sabattus is a good example. In 2009, Sabattus received $532,000 from the state in revenue-sharing.  If the governor's proposal is passed, “that's a department," Gilmore said. "The selectmen would not be in favor of passing it on to taxpayers. It's almost certainly a loss of services.”


SJ Link

Tax the sick, tax the poor, tax the average Mainer, but give LeBuffoon a $2,000,000 legal slush fund to do with as he pleases.

You Tea Party types make absolutely no sense. But, never underestimate the power of stupidity!

Karma
By CLAIRE GAMACHE, Community Member, LEWISTON — Sun, 01/18/2015 - 12:11
Don't you just love that so much of his support came from conservative Catholics who will be repaid by having to pay taxes on Catholic schools and hospitals? And don't you just love that he wants to replace revenue sharing by taxing non-profits when the small rural towns that voted for him don't have any to tax to replace the funds they are losing? And don't you just love how he is thanking the forest service who got all those conservative gun guys to come out and vote for him with the bear referendum? And don't you just love that he is taxing hospitals when he got in by crying about how poor the hospitals were so he had to repay their debt? I said he was going to punish the people who voted for him the most and that they bought a pig in a poke by voting for a guy who would not talk about his plans and his agenda during the campaign and it is even worse than I thought. I'm guessing the guys in the National Guard and the veterans who supported him had better be watching their back.