Do you remember the TV show WKRP with Doctor Johnny “Fever” who stated the phrase “The doctor is in” when he went on air? The doctors are now in Augusta and working feverishly at the State Planning Office, Maine Revenue Services and other offices to put forth a multitude of spin on the financial status of Maine and its heavy burden of taxation. I have requested some information under the auspices of Maine’s Privacy Act, but nothing has arrived and for some reason I don’t expect it ever will.
Both offices mentioned above have been concentrating on how LD1 lowered the property tax burden of Mainers. In editorials, they used some vague arguments backed by supposed statistical data and independent economists although no such proof can be found. The increase in financial aid to education is touted as having reduced our property tax burden. In some towns it may have had a slight impact but remember that there was an overall increase in state spending. So the money had to come from somewhere and that was us. Look no further than Auburn, Raymond, Standish or Portland and see if their property taxes are going down.
Our governor has blamed the federal government (in other words, President Bush) for decreasing federal tax dollars to Maine. Figures show federal aid is up 31 percent since 2000. I don’t have Maine’s figures readily available but the Census Bureau shows the national average increase in state spending during the period 2000 to 2004 is 6.3 percent. Maine’s increase is 18 percent, the second highest in the nation. Where does the money go? It goes into the huge pit called our state bureaucracy. Their spin is that the size of state government is decreasing, but is it? I would have to state that our governor and legislature have a spending virus that has no cure. When we want to avoid the avian (or bird) flu, we get rid of the birds. What do you think we should remove from Augusta? It’s a no-brainer.
Finally I will respond to Kay Soldier’s column, “The Good Word-Save yourselves” in the Feb. 17 edition of this paper. I have two problems with the child care center in a school building and they are not because I am against child care, even if it is in a school building. I want to know why the child care center didn’t go out for bid so that all child care businesses could compete for business inside the school? If not, then our school board and administration have done something wrong in my opinion. Schools are government buildings, not non-profit or profit businesses, so the rules are different. There must be no appearance of favoritism in contracts or other school business. But rumors abound in Windham.
My other problem is since we already have a heavy tax burden because of our public school system I do not want to pay someone else’s child support. What’s next, a state worker in the birthing room of a hospital ready to grab the child when it’s born so the state can care for it for life?
“America believes in education: the average professor earns more money in a year than a professional athlete earns in a whole week.” -Evan Esar
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