Increasing the Gas Tax is a Mistake
Everyday a new headline illustrates Augusta’s inability to properly manage taxpayer dollars. From bloated budgets to tax increases, our State government consistently fails to put our struggling families first.
Last week, an important committee voted to increase the gas tax by 11 cents to nearly 40 cents per gallon. Supporters sadly defended the tax hike by saying they would no longer index the tax to inflation, which increases it automatically year after year. Lawmakers in Augusta have become out of touch with the hard working people of Maine. It would be much more helpful if our elected officials would lower taxes to put more money back in the hands of the people of Maine who earned it in the first place.
Increasing taxes on gas by 37% in middle of a recession is a mistake. As we saw last year during the energy price spike, the high cost of energy affected the price of almost everything, from groceries to retail goods to heating your home.
When a business experiences higher costs or a loss in revenue, an effective manager evaluates the priorities, tightens their belts and increases efficiency. In contrast, our State government raises taxes on struggling families rather than make the tough decisions to reduce spending.
Difficult choices will have to made regarding spending priorities. Our next Governor must be a strong leader and skilled manager who understands finance. I have that real world, for profit experience.
Sagadahoc County GOP Meeting
I’ve been invited to speak at Sagadahoc County Republican Meeting tonight in Topsham. Here are the details:
Sagadahoc County Republican Party Meeting
June 1, 6:00 pm
Border Trust Business Center
2 Main Street
Topsham, ME 04086
Map
Hope to see you there!
Bangor Event Covergae
The editors for a couple of Maine’s local blogs were at the event in Bangor on Wednesday night. I really appreciate their interest this early. As Maine Goes posted the audio here. And here’s an excerpt from the Life blog:
His points were well known by himself and it was his honesty when questioned about things he was unaware of. He was willing to admit he didn’t know something. Politicians as a rule seem arrogant, know-it-all attitude kinds of people. The examples are astounding due to all the back tracking politicians do as a daily exercise routine these days. This man was honest, open, and if people disagree with him I feel confident that he will not back track. I feel he would accept disagreement with his position but not compromise his values to appease those with dissent. I feel he makes a good candidate for office.
Energy Costs on the Rise
After rising sharply during the past few weeks, gas prices are poised to jump again as the busy summer travel season begins. The recession may cause a lot of people to stay home for the summer, which could negatively impact one of our largest industries, tourism. Energy costs touch nearly every aspect of our State and national economies.
Maine must think strategically about its future energy needs. That’s why the proposed 11-cent gas tax hike is the wrong way to address the lack of money to repair our roads and build-out new infrastructure. Our primary goal should be to lower costs to help our struggling families, and to help attract businesses and jobs to our state.
Maine generates plenty of electric power, but our costs are 48% higher than the national average. A primary reason for this is that many of our power generators burn expensive natural gas to produce the electricity. Quebec and the Maritime Provinces generate abundant, clean, and renewable power from mostly hydroelectric dams and nuclear power plants. The cost is less than on-half what we pay in Maine. Our State should do everything possible to foster the repair, upgrade, and completion of our electric power grid in order to import this cheap power.
Educating Our Children
This time of year is always special for parents and their children across Maine. Thousands of students graduate college and high school in the next few weeks and pass an important benchmark in their lives. A good education is their ticket to higher income, better health, and more fulfilling lives.
Unfortunately, too few of our young citizens are reaching those benchmarks. Nearly half of our State budget is spent on education. Maine has the 7th highest cost per student in the country to educate our K-12 population, higher than every other rural state except Vermont. However, our high school graduation rate is average, and our college enrollment is below average. Too many of our kids graduate from high school without being ready for college.
We can provide a better educational experience for our children through competent management of our State resources. For example, McKinsey and Company, the global consulting firm, concluded that Maine spends far too much on administrative overhead as compared to teacher compensation. There many opportunities to better manage our limited resources and help our kids enjoy the fruits of a top notch education.
We can’t just continue directing more money to a State program badly in need of reform. A good education is too important. Our children have only one chance to grab it. We must help them all we can.
Tax Shift Isn’t Tax Reform
Our State legislature is getting closer to finalizing a budget that they claim will bring about tax reform. The proposed shift from taxing income to taxing sales is not tax reform by any definition. Their actions will not help families in Maine who struggle to pay their bills and put food on the table.
Politicians in Augusta never miss an opportunity to miss the point. Rather than putting money in one pocket and taking it out of another, we should be putting money back in people’s hands and leaving it there. Maine taxes businesses and workers at some of the highest rates in the country. We need to be lowering taxes to national averages to better compete with other states for businesses and good jobs.
The focus on tax shifting instead of real reform shows how out of touch our State government is with the hard working people of Maine. When families are faced with a budget crisis, they make the tough decisions to tighten their belts and spend wisely. That’s good common sense fiscal management. We should expect the same from our State government.
We must change the way they do business in Augusta. This will only happen with strong leadership from a proven manager with positive results. My real-world, for-profit financial and economic experience makes me uniquely qualified to fix the problems in Augusta. You can read more about my qualifications here.
Tomorrow in Bangor
I will be in Bangor all day tomorrow. First, I will be on the George Hale and Ric Tyler Show on WVOM-Radio (101.3 & 103.9) at 7:00 am. I will then be speaking at the Bangor Republican meeting at 5:30 pm (Details here).
If you’re in the area, I hope you can listen in to my radio appearance or stop by the meeting later in the evening.
If you can’t make the meeting or listen to my radio interview, you can always reach me via email .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) or phone (207) 232-4387.
Cape Elizabeth GOP Meeting Tonight
I’ve been invited to speak at the Cape Elizabeth GOP meeting this evening. If you can attend, I would love to have you there. Here are the details:
Tuesday, May 26th
7:00 pm
Cape Community Service Building
343 Ocean House Road
Cape Elizabeth, ME 04107
See Map
If you can’t make it, you can always reach out to me via .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address), the website, or call me directly at 207-272-4387.
Hope to see you there!