Sunday, September 13, 2009
Taxes and Election Year
Vehicle Excise tax is a hot issue, as are most tax issues. But come November the voter will have a chance to decide on a couple of tax measures. First let me state that I support an increase in sales tax and flat federal tax, maybe even a federal sales tax. But with that do away with the current income tax system. This way EVERYONE pays and the higher bracket purchasing high end items will pay more. But back to Vehicle Excise tax - I beleive that any rate of any fee, license, charge or tax should be directly related to the purpose for which it was collected - not just another way to collect or raise money for government. With that said, excise tax is not 100% used for local road repair - with that in mind and the fact that many folks don't purchase new because of the high excise tax - I vote to reduce the amount charged by town's. I know that the town's have a great lobbying group, lawyers and association called Maine Municpal which is to protect the town's interest. They are pulling out all the stops to insure that excise tax and income for town's is protected this fall. Some say this will raise property taxes, that will happen only if the voters allow it to happen. Instead we should look at mergering offices, reducing overhead and cutting costs - in case you haven't heard things are tough out there! Next on the voter list is TABOR II, again MMA is against this. TABOR II limits how much state/local can raise property taxes in a given year, much like LD 1 was intended to do a few years ago. MMA says that voting in the excise reduction and limiting how much property taxes can go up will cripple local towns. I am not buying that story one bit. Let make sure we have our priorities correct, roads maintained, plowed, trash picked up and ambulance service. The rest is gravy on potatoes. I would love to have talk about school budgets, but Rusty has the view of that which I agree with. Maybe to save SAD funds, Russel could double as superindent, the Eddington office staff could balance the books and cut checks...hmmm, this could work.
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I agree with you on a lot of this, Lorin. I'm voting against any more taxes. Period. With this increase in Excise taxes (which the proponents argue only impacts new cars) we are hurting car dealers in this state. We need to be helping businesses in Maine survive, especially in our part of Maine. And most of the new cars are easier on the roads and air quality, too.
ReplyDeleteLook at our registration costs already. In Maine, they are 3-4 times higher than for the same cars/years in other states. No wonder the "snowbirds" take their cars with them and register them in FL. If people need to buy a new car (and who in this part of the state is buying anything unless it's because they need it?) we shouldn't be hitting them harder in the pocket with higher Excise taxes. Look at the state of our local roads as it is. All the money goes Portland way.
As for Tabor Now - which would limit Property Taxes. A good thing!!! This state is taxing the People of Maine right off their property. I know there is someone in Eddington who reallly doesn't like it when I reference ANYTHING in California, but - when an individual buys property in CA, their property tax is FIXED at 1 to 1.5 percent of the purchase price. And it stays at that rate until the house is sold (no matter the increase or decrease in appreciation). The next buyer gets a set property tax rate at 1-1.5 percent of his/her purchase price. (And there is none of the 3 percent that goes to the state if the seller is not a CA resident at the time of the sale, either, which is what currently happens in the state of Maine. More robbery as far as I'm concerned.)
As for MMA's threat (and that's what it is - a threat, the typical tactic to any change proposed impacting any level of government's power to collect or money-making authority). MMA is stating any repeal of the Excise Tax will "force" an increase in Property taxes - That's BULL. Lorin is right. All it takes to keep property taxes down - or to REDUCE them (now isn't that a Revolutionary Thought) is for the PEOPLE to start attending the Public Hearing on the PROPOSED town budgets and start questioning the amount of money their elected representatives plan to spend (of the taxpayers' money) and for what. Then, the PEOPLE need to attend their Town Meeting and VOTE. What a shock it would be for the PEOPLE to take back their own authority - and take back some of their hard-earned money. MMA is planning on people to be as complacent in the future as they have been in the past. It's time for the PEOPLE to stand up and say No more taxes and the power is with the People -not the tax-and-spend government we have allowed to evolve here in Maine.
Yes, I have ideas re: how even the school district budget could be reduced. You can read more on that on MY blog... www.eddingtonnews.blogspot.com
There's a School Board meeting this coming Monday night at 6:30pm at the Holden School. It should be "interesting." Read my blog for a few clues on that.
Rusty