Letter to the Editor: Legislature missing the point with budget discussion

The Maine Legislature, in its current budget discussions, is totally missing the point.

While giving serious consideration to income tax cuts that will benefit those with higher incomes, and by lowering the sales tax from 5.5 to 5 percent, legislators are again handing property taxpayers the bill.

In my town of Wilton, the proposed annual operating budget will increase by $303,711, a 1.5 mil increase. It is unclear where the RSU 9 budget will end up, but as originally presented, there was an additional increase of some $300,000 for Wilton.

Taken together, these increases total more than $600,000 and will cause will a 3 mil property tax increase. For our property – The Wilton Blueberry Farm – this will mean a $1,200 increase in property tax.

In the 11 years we have owned the farm, our property taxes have increased by over $5,000, or by more than 200 percent.

I have been a Selectman and serve on the town Finance Committee. The problem for the town is not in the cost of operations. In fact, in the budget recommended to the Select-board by the Finance Committee, expenses increased by only $15,828 on a $3 million dollar municipal budget.

However, the Legislature, over the past several years, has gradually reduced Municipal Revenue Sharing so that Wilton now receives just $200,000. When fully funded, that figure was as high as $425,000. Remember, revenue sharing is not a hand-out. The program requires the state to “share” a percentage of sales and income tax generated within the town.

As for education, the RSU 9 Superintendent of Schools put it well when he reacted to the defeat of the school budget:

“The school district was put in a no-win situation when the state increased the educational mill rate to towns from 8.1 percent to 8.47 percent,” he said. “This is the amount the towns have to raise to receive their state allocation. That amount of increase on our towns was not realistic.”

It is also important to note that our per-pupil expenditure is the lowest in the region.

My experience in local government and as a parent has been that municipal and education spending is appropriate to maintain our town services and meet the needs of our students. That experience has also shown me that year-after-year, legislators have shifted the cost of government onto the property taxpayers.

Inherently, the property tax is the most regressive form of taxation. It has no relation to income or ability to pay and hits our most vulnerable population – elders on fixed income – the hardest.

So, when a legislator tells you he has cut spending and not raised your taxes, help that legislator see the point.

Irving Faunce
Wilton