Rumford's senior citizens, beware of

the LeBuffoon behind the curtain.  Regarding the governor's budget proposal, please be aware that....

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...a high earner might see a savings of several thousand dollars from the cuts the governor has proposed, many Mainers will not see one penny of savings.

Take, for example, a senior citizen living on Social Security, on which the vast majorities of Mainers do not pay income tax. Under the governor’s plan this person will not see any savings from an elimination of the income tax. But more than likely her property taxes will go up, as will the sales tax on most everything she purchases. To make up the income tax savings for the high earner, the senior citizen is likely to pay several hundred dollars more in property tax each year.

It is worth noting that the high earner will also see an increase in property taxes, but property taxes are tax deductible for high earners who itemize their deductions, which could save him an additional $1,000 or more on an annual basis.

SJ Link

There are consequences to having no income tax. New Hampshire and Tennessee, for example, have among the highest property taxes in the country, as well as a tax on capital gains and income taxes.

First off, you are trying to compare an apple to an orange and a banana. New Hampshire operates strictly on property tax having no sales and use tax or income tax. Tennessee has a 7% state sales and use tax as well as a 2.5% local sales and use tax putting sales and use tax in Tennessee at 9.25%, on top of which they have property tax that funds both city and state government, no income tax. Maine, currently has every tax imaginable, income tax, corporate income tax (double taxing), sales and use tax, and property tax. You can't compare apples to oranges and bananas without being a fruit salad.

For decades Maine municipalities have used the "revenue sharing" monies coming from the state, which is coming from the same pockets of the same taxpayers as are paying the property taxes to fund the towns and schools only a different hand is stuck in our pockets to take it, for "extras" since they figure we won't notice. To a great degree, they have been correct.

But enough is enough and the folks are sick of all these hands dipping into our pockets. The municipalities should have been using the "windfall," and as a "windfall" is exactly how they have treated state revenue sharing, to pay off debt and build a rainy day find. But we live in a society driven by instant gratification and under the assumption that money grows on trees. Now the chickens have come home to roost leaving the big spenders with a dusty bag full of holes.

Time to sharpen the pencils and get down to the brass tacks of cutting municipal budgets. A good start would be to cut 10 cents from every dollar spent, but that won't happen. So we will have to settle for cutting 1 penny from every dollar spent in the current 2014-2015 budget for the 2015-2016 budget and repeat that annually for a good many years to come. Cutting 1 penny from each dollar in a town like Rumford with a $7 million budget will leave the taxpayers with an extra $70,000 in their pockets this year, $140,000 in their pockets next year and so on. The gradual drop in spending will allow the powers that be plenty of opportunity to adjust.

RSU 10 with a budget of nearly $37 MILLION should be cutting 10% as well. They should be taking a hint from what is going on with State Revenue Sharing to municipalities as the writing on the wall as to what will be coming their way very shortly. They need to realize that the money coming from the state isn't a "windfall" it is, like in the case of State Revenue Sharing to municipalities, just another hand stuck in the very same taxpayers pockets. Ideally, with a budget so far above what is necessary for essential programs and services as the RSU 10 budget is, cutting 10% should be a cake walk. Again, that instant gratification and money growing on trees mentality will stand in their way. So they to should be looking to cut at the very least 1 penny from each dollar spent in the current school year, 2014-2015, in preparing the 2015-2016 budget, a cut of $370,000, to be repeated each year for the next 10 years or so.

What ever you say Candice...