The Taxpayer Bill of Rights is a bad idea. It sounds good as a slogan and promises a lot, but when you look into the details, it does not deliver.
We all want lower taxes, efficient government and control over wasteful spending, but TABOR is not the way to go. In fact, TABOR would place a rigid and arbitrary formula for government taxes and spending. This one-size-fits-all formula will not prioritize the things we care most about, and it does nothing to address wasteful spending.
That’s why AARP is urging Mainers to Vote No on Question One.
TABOR is a misleading initiative that looks good on the surface, and hits the emotional target of our desire and need for lower taxes. But when AARP looked into the details, we discovered that it will do things that we do not want and will likely regret later.
We care about our youth and want them to have a quality education. After all, they are our future. TABOR would immediately require a cut of about a third of the local school budgets and threaten higher education. We care about public safety and emergency services. We know that the delay of minutes can have drastic consequences when an emergency vehicle is called. TABOR will make it more difficult for local lifesavers to respond in a timely manner.
And when we look at the potential impact that TABOR could have on our older Mainers, we are concerned. Our members tell us that one of the things they care about most is to be able to stay in their own homes as they age. We are concerned about what will happen to supportive home-health services and how programs such as Meals on Wheels might suffer under TABOR.
TABOR is an effort by ideological outsiders to impose their cookie-cutter approach not just on Maine, but on numerous other states this election season, including Arizona, Oregon and Nebraska. These outsiders are unconcerned about our individual needs and problems. Make no mistake, this initiative would seriously undermine our state’s ability to maintain services, creating the potential for devastating cuts to vital programs, and not just those that would impact older Mainers.
We urge voters to get the details and see what is hidden behind the tempting slogans. Yes, we want lower taxes. Yes, we want efficiency in the way government spends our money and in the way programs are run. But TABOR will not solve these problems, and in fact, will ultimately hurt the things we care about most: education, health care and public safety.
We need accountable elected officials, not proposals better suited for a bumper sticker. Get the facts about TABOR and then Vote NO on Question 1.
Les LaFond is president of AARP Maine
Send questions/comments to the editors.
